Choate Rosemary Hall Bulletin | Fall '14

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BULLETIN THE MAG A ZINE OF CHOATE ROSEMARY HALL

FALL ’14

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c o m m o n r o o t s

Cheer then for Choate…

s h a r e d p u r p o s e

vision & leadership

For generations we've been cheering our teams to victory against our rivals.

GO CHOATE! BEAT DEERFIELD

t r a d i t i o n s ta k e r o o t

1890–1915

Join Us to Kickoff the Celebration Deerfield Day, November 9, 2014 common roots

more details at www.choate.edu

The Choate Rosemary Hall Bulletin is printed using vegetable-based inks on FSC-certified, 100% post consumer recycled paper. This issue saved 101 trees, 42,000 gallons of wastewater, 291 lbs of waterborne waste, and 9,300 lbs of greenhouse gases from being emitted.

In this issue:

100 YEARS OF CREW

shared purpose

VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY: Retracing Caroline’s Footsteps

UPDATE: WHAT'S THE BIG i.d.EA?

Forever True… and we thank you

As she liked it… c o m m o n

T H E A N N UA L F U N D

r o o t s

s h a r e d p u r p o s e

As you’ll like it.

Among the many traditions Headmistress Caroline Ruutz-Rees introduced to Rosemary Hall were cricket, self-government, and the annual Shakespeare play. The first Shakespeare play was performed at Rosemary Hall in Wallingford in the spring of 1893. Pictured here is the 1898 production of As You Like It. In honor of our 125 years at School, and in celebration of our longstanding theatrical tradition, Choate Rosemary Hall’s theater program will reprise the comedy this October. Just as Caroline Ruutz-Rees’ would have liked it.

BULLETIN THE MAG A ZINE OF CHOATE ROSEMARY HALL

FALL ’14

Choate Rosemary Hall Bulletin is published fall, winter, and spring for alumni, students and their parents, and friends of the School. Please send change of address to Alumni Records and all other correspondence to the Communications Office, 333 Christian Street, Wallingford, CT 06492-3800.

Choate Rosemary Hall does not discriminate in the administration of its educational policies, athletics, other school-administered programs, or in the administration of its hiring and employment practices on the basis of age, gender, race, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, or non-job-related handicap.

Printed in U.S.A. 1415-013/17.5 M

Editorial Offices T: (203) 697-2252 F: (203) 697-2380 E-mail: alumline@choate.edu Website: www.choate.edu

Class Notes Editor Henry McNulty ’65

Director of Strategic Planning & Communications Alison J. Cady

Photography Donald R. Bennett Emily Bierman Deron Chang John Giammatteo ’77 Richard Howard Ian Morris Ross Mortensen

Editor Lorraine S. Connelly Design and Production David C. Nesdale

Communications Assistant Britney G. Cullinan

It all begins with a community of supporters…

Contributors Audrey Alt John H. Connelly Ellen Q. Devine Stephen C. Farrell Susan Peel Farrell G. Jeffrey MacDonald ’87 Katherine Marsh ’92 Kevin Mardesich ’87 Henry McNulty ’65 Benjamin F. Sylvester Kathleen Lyons Wallace Lindsay Whalen ’01 Thomas G. White

A hearty “Go Choate!” cheer is dedicated to the thousands of alumni, parents, and friends who gave to the 2013–2014 Choate Rosemary Hall Annual Fund! Thanks to your remarkable dedication to the School, we surpassed our goal of $5,100,000; we could not have done it without you! Your generous support helps us continue to prepare exceptional students to succeed in our rapidly changing world; to commit to learning, leadership, and service for a lifetime; and to improve the communities in which they live today … and tomorrow.

Thank you for your support – and for being forever true to gold and blue.

Go Choate!

CONTENTS | Fall 2014 features

8

departments

Vision & Leadership: Traditions Take Root 1890-1915 The First 25 Years of Our School

22

Nostalgia: Choate Crew 100 Years in the Boat

28

Voyage of Discovery Retracing Caroline Ruutz-Rees’ 1905-1906 Paris Sabbatical

ON THE COVER

Headmistress of Rosemary Hall, Caroline Ruutz-Rees, circa 1910 and Headmaster George St. John, 1909.

Choate Rosemary Hall Board of Trustees 2014-2015 Samuel P. Bartlett ’91 Michael J. Carr ’76 George F. Colony ’72 Alex D. Curtis P ’17 Thompson Dean P ’14, ’18 Borje E. Ekholm P ’17 David R. Foster ’72 Robert B. Goergen, Jr. ’89 John F. Green ’77 Linda J. Hodge ’73, P ’12 Brett M. Johnson ’88 Vanessa Kong-Kerzner P ’16 Cecelia M. Kurzman ’87

Edward O. Lanphier ’74, P ’04 Gretchen Cooper Leach ’57 James A. Lebovitz ’75, P ’06, ’10 Kewsong Lee ’82 Patrick J. McCurdy ’98 Robert A. Minicucci ’71 Peter B. Orthwein ’64 Marshall S. Ruben P ’07, ’08, ’10 Henry K. Snyder ’85 Jeanette Sublett P ’07, ’10, ’13

Life Trustees Charles F. Dey P ’78, ’81, ’83 Bruce S. Gelb ’45, P ’72, ’74, ’76, ’78 Edwin A. Goodman ’58 Herbert V. Kohler, Jr. ’57, P ’84 Cary L. Neiman ’64 Stephen J. Schulte ’56, P ’86 Edward J. Shanahan P ’92, ’95 William G. Spears ’56, P ’81, ’90

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On Christian & Elm News about the School

32

Alumni Association News

36

Classnotes Profiles of Jonathan Fanton ’61, President, Academy of Arts and Sciences; Jordan Lloyd Bookey ’96, Co-founder, Zoobean; Maximilian Sinsteden ’05, Interior Designer, Olasky & Sinsteden; and Q&A with Dr. Tony Rinella ’87

54

In Memoriam Former faculty Herbert Coursen Jr., and former staff Sandra Geremia Devine

58

Scoreboard Spring Sports Wrap-up

60

Bookshelf Reviews of works by Roger Vaughan ’55, James Lenfestey ’62, Peter Richmond ’71, and David Dorsey ’90

64

End Note What’s the Big i.d.EA? The Classroom Redefined

Editorial Advisory Board Judy Donald ’66 Howard R. Greene P ’82, ’05 Michelle Judd Rittler ’98 Dorothy Heyl ’71, P ’07 Henry McNulty ’65 John Steinbreder ’74 Monica St. James P ’06 Francesca Vietor ’82 Heather Zavod P ’87, ’90

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2

Remarks From The Headmaster

Dear Alumni, Parents, and Friends of the School, As we begin the academic year in anticipation of our School’s 125th milestone, never has the theme of “Common Roots, Shared Purpose” appeared in such sharp focus. What struck me, and I hope will grab your attention as well as you read the insightful installment of our history by journalist Jeffrey MacDonald ’87 (p. 8), is the modernity of our founders’ vision, one that would guide us, keep us on course, and retain its relevancy for us well into the 21st century.

Headmistress Caroline Ruutz-Rees was committed to the ideal that her academic institution would be a rigorous purveyor of the “latest ideas in modern education.” Judge William G. Choate was as firmly rooted in the principle of character formation for his boys – a hallmark that Headmaster George St. John would make his own for the next 40 years. How remarkable that these two guiding principles have held the test of time and are reflected in our current mission statement: “Two interwoven priorities define the Choate Rosemary Hall experience: a rigorous academic curriculum and an emphasis on the formation of character.”

While retracing Caroline Ruutz-Rees’ 1905 Paris sabbatical, English department head Ellen Devine reminds us of what she learned from this inspired pedagogue – that any lesson well learned begins with one’s own voyage of discovery (p. 28). In a 1905 letter to her students, Caroline Ruutz-Rees, with the prescience of a modern-day educator, cautions her students against the accumulation of dead facts: “A pile of material is not a work of art – it lies with the artist to make it so; and in the same way, the accumulation of facts and methods does not constitute an education. You must use your own powers upon it … every lesson can be some sort of voyage of discovery.”

In today’s world it is this very voyage of discovery that educator and creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson champions in what he calls the “quest of finding your element.” He notes: We create our life according to the talents that we find within ourselves, the interests that drive us, and everybody ends up having a unique resume. If we create our life, we can recreate it. … We owe it to ourselves to look deep inside to see what talents we really do have. Often, human talents are like the world’s natural resources. They’re buried under the ground; you don’t know that they’re there until you go actively searching for them and try to develop them.

Our students are now uniquely positioned to tap into their inner resources and discover their element in our newly endowed academic facility, the Cameron and Edward Lanphier Center for Mathematics and Computer Science, set to open in spring 2015 (p. 6).

Inspired by the creativity and innovation we see in today’s science and technology industries, the School’s new Lanphier Center will provide a space for our current generation of students to imagine, invent, dream, and discover. The Lanphier Center will be a place for discovery – a place I believe Headmistress Ruutz-Rees would be pleased to see at her beloved school.

This generous contribution from a legacy family will allow for many new voyages of discovery to continue as our students prepare for the world that awaits them. And as we redefine the classroom experience for a new generation of students, there remains this constant, as eloquently expressed by Associate Headmaster Kathleen Lyons Wallace (End Note on p. 64): “Talented teachers and engaged students collaborating and connecting over common goals.” This is the core of a Choate Rosemary Hall education.

With all best wishes from campus,

Alex D. Curtis Headmaster

BULLETIN | FALL 2014 3

Letters

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK! I cannot remember a better issue of the Bulletin. What a special treat to devour the Spring 2014 issue. From the cover, to the paper stock; layout to contents; the brilliant balance between old Choate and new; this issue seems about perfect.

Seeing the photos and news about my classmates was inspirational. The piece by Henry McNulty ’65, ”A Passion for the Life of the Mind,” was fascinating and “new” news. I only wish that the black and white photo on pp.

18-19 had identified the boys with Seymour and Peggy St. John. Keep up the good work.

Seth Hoyt ’61 Long Lake, Minnesota

From Judy Donald ’66, Archivist: Not everyone is identified in the photo of Seymour and Peggy St. John on the Lodge patio with students, c. 1961. Here’s the best we have, from left, Peggy St. John, unknown seated student with back to camera (could be Charles Lee ’62), Jake Cartwright ’62, Philip (“Sandy”) Greene ’62, T.C. Kung ’61, unidentified boy standing, Bill Clendaniel ’62, and Seymour St. John. Maybe our readers can help identify the still unidentified?

WHAT FUN! I was thrilled to see what you had done with my submission about faculty wives at Choate – “The Unsung Element” in the Spring 2014 issue. You made it much better without changing the feeling. Louise Clements called me from California and a former student of my husband’s, who graduated in 1955, called me from Florida. I taught him dancing at Choate. I was an Arthur Murray dance instructor for a few years before I started having children. We had a long conversation about the early years at Choate. What fun!

Mary F. Cushman Loudon, Tennessee Mary F. Cushman Ph.D. was married to George Cushman, who taught French and Spanish and coached lacrosse from 1948 to 1980.

CORRECTION: THREE-PEAT: ALUMNAE OLYMPIC FEAT The 2006 Olympic Games were in Turin, not Vancouver as stated in the article on page 16, Spring 2014 Bulletin. In Turin, the trio of Choate alumnae, Angela Ruggerio ’98, Kim Insalaco ’99, and Julie Chu ’01, brought home the bronze medal. At the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, the trio of Angela Ruggiero ’98, Julie Chu ’01, and Hilary Knight ’07 brought home the silver. At the 2014 Sochi Games, the trio of Julie Chu ’01, Hilary Knight ’07, and Josephine Pucci ’09 (making her Olympic debut) brought him the silver again for Team USA. Also making her Olympic debut at Sochi was Phoebe Staenz ’13, who won a bronze medal as a member of the Swiss Team.

DO YOU

BLOG?

Quite a number of our alumni are making inroads in social media through blogging about food, fashion & travel, sports, technology, and politics and the law. In many ways, blogging is the 21st century version of the 17th century roman à clef. It’s a very contemporary style created for a coterie of insiders who are die-hard fans. If you would like to share your experiences as a blogger for an upcoming article in the Bulletin, please contact Editor Lorraine Connelly lconnelly@choate.edu.

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ON CHRISTIAN & ELM | Faculty News

2014 Dean of Students Office Appointments

William G. Morris III, a 13-year veteran of Choate Rosemary Hall’s teaching faculty, was appointed Associate Dean of Students and Director of Residential Life. Morris just completed a three-year rotation as form dean for the Class of 2014. Says Dean of Students James Stanley, “Will brings enthusiasm, thoughtfulness, creativity, and a breadth of experience to the job. His work as a form dean, faculty adviser for the prefect program, member of the Choate Leadership Institute team, and dorm adviser have helped prepare him well for his new role.”

Morris was hired as chemistry teacher and head boys varsity squash coach in 2001.

Morris and his wife, Hannah, live in Mead House with their three children.

Joining the deans’ rotation for the first time as Girls Dean for the Class of 2017 is Julia Brown ’83, former Director of Day Students. A 1983 graduate of Choate, she joined the faculty in 2004 to teach Spanish after working for a time as a lawyer and then spending time at home raising her four children. She is the parent of two Choate graduates Rebecca ’10 and Emily ’12.

Patrick B. Dennehy was appointed Boys Dean for the Class of 2017. Mr. Dennehy joined the faculty in 2004 as assistant director of athletics and head boys varsity hockey coach. He lives on campus with his wife, Michelle, and their two children.

Laura H. Milligan was appointed Director of Day Students. She joined the faculty in 2013 as an English teacher and field hockey coach. She lives on campus with her husband, Chris, and their two children.

In addition, Edward S. McCatty and Tyren R.D. Bynum ’07 join the team as Co-Advisers to Students of Color.

Of the new appointments, Stanley says, “the experience and enthusiasm these individuals bring to their new roles will make them wonderful mentors for the students as well as valued colleagues in the Deans’ Office.”

Several Choate administrators and teachers are presenting on important topics that impact the future of independent secondary school education and reflect the leadership role Choate is taking with significant initiatives in certain areas. This summer, biology teacher Deron Chang presented at the 2014 EdTechTeacher Summit in Chicago.

An 18-year veteran of the classroom, Chang demonstrated ways in which the iPad is redefining learning in his biology classroom. Says Chang, “Students have historically benefited from viewing animations when learning complex biochemical and physiological processes. With the iPad and an app for making stop action videos, students can now learn these processes by making their own animations. This instructional method is a powerful teaching tool that is transferable to all STEM disciplines.

By making simple animations from scratch, students confirm their understanding in a fun and creative way and also benefit from developing their collaboration, research, and problem solving skills through a creative endeavor.”

In keeping with creating the best educational opportunities and experiences for our students, Headmaster Alex Curtis and Wallingford Superintendent of Schools Sal Menzo traveled to New York City in September with a contingent of students and teachers. The group met with the educational innovation team at Quirky, one of the World’s Top 10 Innovative Companies, (according to Fast Company magazine), representatives at IDEO, a design and innovation consulting firm, and General Assembly, a company that offers classes and workshops on the most relevant skills of the 21st century. Barrie Berg P ’16, former CEO of WhatIfInnovation, was one of the hosts for the trip. Says Katie Jewett, Choate’s Director of Curricular Initiatives, “These companies offer us a fantastic opportunity to learn more about innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship and how Choate and Wallingford’s 21st Century Innovation Team can cultivate such activities in their own community of learners.”

Back row, from left: Ed McCatty, Will Morris, and Pat Dennehy Front row: Julia Brown ’83, and Tyren Bynum ’07.

Choate … on the Move

To learn more about how Choate is redefining the classroom experience, see Associate Headmaster Kathleen Lyons Wallace’s article on page 64.

BULLETIN | FALL 2014 5

Tom Yankus ’52

57

years of service

2014 Year End Celebration Honors Choate Legends Headmaster Alex D. Curtis and the Choate community gathered on June 12 to celebrate the retirement of seven people and honor them for their years of service to the School. Retirees included art teacher Reginald Bradford, dean’s assistant Suzanne M. Cornwell, Paul Mellon Arts Center technician George L. Hall, electrician Charles A. Hinners, co-director of Choate’s Term Abroad Program in France, Elizabeth S. Scott, Copy Center coordinator Patricia A. Tarasiewicz, and English teacher Thomas A. Yankus ’52.

The program also recognized faculty and staff reaching their 25-year milestones: Krystyna E. Bak, Judith W. Bender, Nancy S. Burress, Lorraine S. Connelly, and Constance J. Matthews.

Executive Director of Development and Alumni Relations Daniel J. Courcey III ’86 read a citation in honor of veteran faculty member Tom Yankus, hired in 1957 by then-Headmaster Seymour St. John ’31. Throughout his tenure, Dan said, “Tom Yankus has served countless formal and informal roles. Mentor, sportsman, musician, English teacher extraordinaire, school fire chief, St. Andrews Camp Director, form dean, dean of students, house adviser, summer school cluster dean, athletic director, varsity

Reggie Bradford

37

years of service

baseball, and varsity volleyball coach, football team coaching staff member, holder of multiple faculty chairs, Georgetown University honorary degree holder, Alumni Seal Prize winner, and Athletics Hall of Fame inductee. And yet to most of us, he is best known as a colleague and friend. Patiently, calmly and always with good humor and ever in his own low-key, self-effacing way, Tom has taught all of us over the years – in the classroom and out of it – how to befriend, how to listen, how to help, how to live humanely and how to just plain be still and admire the inherent beauty of things.”

Former Dean of Faculty Stephen Farrell read the citation in honor of Reggie Bradford, who is retiring after 37 years at school.

“When Reggie arrived at Choate in 1976,” Stephen said, “it was a very different school and town: as un-diverse as one might imagine, and Reggie quickly had to support not only his own growing family but also all students of color, especially the African-American ones who felt besieged and outnumbered in this not always welcoming environment. Beloved by his students for his unwavering support and warm personality, he always encouraged them to push themselves, as he had all his life.”

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ON CHRISTIAN & ELM | NEWSWORTHY

Lanphier Family Endows New Mathematics and Computer Science Facility Last fall, Choate Rosemary Hall broke ground on its new 35,000-square-foot mathematics and computer science facility designed by world-renowned architects Pelli Clarke Pelli to replace St. John Hall, Choate’s mathematics building since 1958. At Convocation on September 2, Headmaster Alex Curtis announced that in recognition of a generous gift from Trustee Edward Lanphier ’74, P ’04 and his wife, Cameron P ’04, the School has decided to name the new math building the Cameron and Edward Lanphier Center for Mathematics and Computer Science. Dr. Curtis also reminded students and faculty of the School’s plan to move forward with the construction of a new campus center, likely to be built on the current St. John Hall site, that will include two parts: a student center and an auditorium large enough to seat the entire community. Dr. Curtis’ joint announcement about the Lanphier Center and that St. John Hall will be the name of the new student center was received enthusiastically by all.

The Lanphiers are a multigenerational legacy family. The Dean of Faculty’s office is named The Edward Oliver Lanphier Study in honor of Edward’s great uncle, a member of the Class of 1919. Other Choate graduates include his grandfather Robert Jr., 1923; great uncle Charles, 1927; father, Robert III, 1950; and his twin brother, Robert IV, 1974. Son Ned is a member of the Class of 2004 and one of only a few fourth-generation graduates of Choate Rosemary Hall.

Rendering courtesy of Pelli Clarke Pelli.

“This generous contribution from a legacy family will allow us to continue our drive toward even greater excellence.”

–DR. ALEX CURTIS

Cameron (known as Cam) and Edward met at Choate as young faculty in the late 1970s. They married in 1982.

A graduate of Williams College, Cameron taught mathematics and coached field hockey at Choate from 1978-1981. After leaving Choate and working in banking and finance, Cam returned to teaching. She has been a mathematics teacher at the Branson School in Ross, Calif., since 1988.

Edward, a graduate of Knox College, taught science at Choate from 1978-1980. He went on to join the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. In 1995, he founded Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. in Richmond, Calif.

To this day, he still credits an offcampus Choate senior project con-

ducted in a medical school molecular biology lab for creating the passion and setting the stage for his present career in the cutting-edge field of gene therapy.

“This generous contribution from a legacy family will allow us to continue our drive toward even greater excellence,” said Dr. Curtis.

“It offers a tremendous opportunity for future generations of Choate students to share their talents and realize their dreams.”

Inspired by the creativity and innovation we see in today’s science and technology industries, the new Lanphier Center will provide a space for our current generation of students to imagine, invent, dream, and discover.

For the first time at Choate, new courses such as Visual Mathematics, Reverse Engineering, and Design Thinking will add to the variety of offerings. Designed to support handson learning, the center will also foster collaboration and creativity with spaces for students to work in teams. In addition, the new building will be home to Choate’s first purpose– built i.d.Lab©, which will serve as a catalyst for our curriculum.

The construction of the center is nearing completion with a formal dedication ceremony on March 27, 2015. Look for more news on the Lanphier Center in the winter issue of the Bulletin.

BULLETIN | FALL 2014 7

NAIS PRESIDENT VISITS CHOATE On May 8, John E. Chubb, President of the National Association of Independent Schools, stopped by Choate Rosemary Hall as part of his first-year listening tour.

During his visit Dr. Chubb had a driving and walking tour of campus, toured the construction site of the new Lanphier Center, and met with Headmaster Alex Curtis and students. He also had the opportunity to hear two presentations given by Choate’s Director of Curricular Initiatives Katharine Jewett, PhD., and Director of Faculty Development Thomas White.

He was impressed by the construction of the new facility, which will allow for student collaboration inside and outside of formal academic and lab spaces, but he was equally impressed by the professional development the School is providing its teachers: “thoughtfully scaffolded skills matched to the School’s chosen direction for teaching and learning.”

Read more about Dr. Chubb’s visit on his blog at http://www.nais.org/Presidents-Corner/Presidents.

Orchestra and Chamber Chorus Tour Asia Members of the Choate Rosemary Hall Orchestra and Chamber Chorus, accompanied by Orchestra Director Phil Ventre and Choral Director Alysoun Kegel, left for a 12-day concert tour of South Korea, Beijing, Hong Kong, and Macau in June. They performed at the Chadwick International School in Seoul, appeared with the Concert Band of Beijing Children’s Palace, and reprised the 2000 Beijing performance at the Great Wall at Ju Yong Guan. The trip was funded in part by the Beyond the Classroom Fund which supports Choate students who might not be able to participate in an activity because of prohibitive costs.

Choate alumni and parents hosted dinners for student musicians and chaperones during the trip.

The Orchestra has performed in 10 European countries and at The White House, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and the Guggenheim Museum. The Chamber Chorus has toured as well, including concerts in Spain and Italy and at Carnegie Hall

2014 Charles Krause ’51 Fellow in Rhetoric, Dame Evelyn Glennie World renowned deaf percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie gave a presentation and performance to students and faculty at an all-school special program on April 29. Prior to the evening presentation, Dame Evelyn gave a master class to Choate percussionists.

Awarded Dame Commander of the British Empire in 2007, she was a featured guest performer in the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics. A double Grammy award winner and BAFTA nominee, she is leading commissioner of more than 170 new works for solo percussion and is in demand as a composer for film and television. Based on her TED Talk – “How to Truly Listen,” Dame Evelyn had the audience riveted as selected participants introduced themselves to each other through drumming sounds.

2014 Charles Krause ’51 Fellow in Rhetoric Dame Evelyn Glennie. The Charles A. Krause ’51 Fund provides an academic department the opportunity to bring to campus an individual who has inspired others by making a distinguished contribution in his or her field.

COMMENCEMENT 2014 John Quiñones, anchor of ABC’s What Would You Do?, delivered remarks to the Class of 2014 on Sunday, June 8. Headmaster Alex D. Curtis and the Board of Trustees bestowed diplomas and certificates to the senior class, comprised of 245 graduates.

Quiñones was a keynote speaker at the 2014 National Association of Independent Schools Annual Conference held in Orlando, Florida, last February. He talked about rising from the limitations of his family of migrant workers to achieve his dream of being in broadcast journalism. “Whatever profession you pursue,” said Quiñones, “make sure it’s not just about a job but rather a career for which you have a real passion. Chase that dream because there’s a fire in your belly that burns for it.”

“Choate is so much more than a school.

Choate is a family. It is our family.”

Caroline L. Buckholtz ’14, President of the Sixth Form, addressed her classmates: “Choate is so much more than a school. Choate is a family. It is our family.” She encouraged her classmates to stay true to themselves, “to be curious and engaged in the world around us, to be nostalgic and reflective of our time together, but to be progressive toward the future. To be proud of what makes us unique, yet grateful for what binds us together.” Before leaving the platform Caroline took a selfie of the Class of 2014.

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Feature

vision & leadership traditions take root / 1890-1915 by g. jeffrey macdonald ’87

Reinterpreting the cornerstone educational mission would become a guiding principle

c o m m o n r o o t s

– an enduring, even defining trait – not only for Rosemary Hall but also for The Choate School and for the later Choate Rosemary Hall, which celebrates 125 years in 2015.

photographs courtesy of choate rosemary hall archives

s h a r e d p u r p o s e

10

Mary Atwater Choate.

Tinted miniature painted on ivory, undated.

BULLETIN | FALL 2014 11

Advertisement for Rosemary Hall from Forum Magazine, 1895

Map of Wallingford, 1883.

Highlights the properties of Judge Choate, the Atwater Family, and Miss Curtis, that would become the future location of the School

WALLINGFORD From the moment Rosemary Hall first opened its doors as a school for girls in October 1890, its students were tracked for more than one type of success.

The most intellectually oriented would be groomed for the likes of Bryn Mawr College while others would focus on practical skills befitting a “finished” lady of that time.

Along the way, all would master how to cook a good meal and mend a torn sock.

Yet by the early 1900s, the Rosemary Hall experience would be far more uniform – and unconventional. Gone were the domestic arts as a focus; every girl would now be on a college preparatory track. Mastery in the classics, from Greek grammar to productions of Shakespearean plays, would be among the marks of a well-formed Rosemarian.

The philosophy that girls could and should be classically trained for new roles in the future made Rosemary Hall as avant-garde as it was steeped in tradition.

This shift happened as the first generation of leaders laid claim to the original vision. No sooner had Mary Atwater Choate founded Rosemary Hall than her ideas underwent a radical reinterpretation under the influence of the first headmistress, Caroline Ruutz-Rees. What emerged in the process was not only a premier boarding school for girls; institutional DNA was also becoming evident.

But first, the social justice vision of a social entrepreneur would need translating for a fledgling school in the Connecticut countryside.

As the wife of a federal judge and a fifth-generation heir to Wallingford’s Rosemary Farm, Mrs. Choate leveraged her status in society to create opportunities for women in an era before social safety nets existed. In 1878, she founded the New York Exchange for Woman’s Work, where women could sell everything from chicken pies to mittens – and keep a whopping 75 percent of the selling price.

Her passion for helping women on every rung of society’s ladder led her to the field of education. She envisioned a school where girls of mixed abilities could grow their minds and talents. From that dream came the establishment of Rosemary Hall at the family farm in Connecticut, where Mrs. Choate and her husband, William, spent their summers.

“The special object of Rosemary Hall will be to foster any talent discovered in its pupils and to teach those who are not specially gifted to make a study of some practical subject,” the New Haven Morning News reported when Rosemary Hall opened in Atwater House at the corner of Christian and Elm streets. “Housekeeping will form an important feature of the school course.”

c o m m o n r o o t s

s h a r e d p u r p o s e

12

There are three foundation stones of our education, “They are athletic games, self-government, and hard intellectual work. On those three things we depend for the right training of the body, soul, and spirit.

–caroline ruutz-rees 1941 essay, education

RUUTZ-REES, HOWEVER, WASN’ T CONVINCED GIRLS SHOULD BE TRAINED SOLELY FOR PRESENT-DAY OPPORTUNITIES. She foresaw more doors opening to

future generations, perhaps with a nudge from her welltrained alumnae. She believed they should be ready for such changes, whenever they might come, and her school would reflect that ethos, more and more, over time.

A London-born immigrant and tireless advocate for women’s suffrage, Ruutz-Rees was committed to “the latest ideas of modern education,” as one reporter observed.

This meant providing experiences that virtually no one expected girls to have in those days: college preparatory academics, competitive sports, and a unique self-government system in which they would craft a school constitution, then enforce their own rules.

Rosemary girls weren’t allowed to be homebodies. They busily learned a range of sports: basketball, field hockey, and cricket. When snows fell, they’d grab sleds and take to the hills. When they weren’t studying the poetry of Homer or Keats, they might be practicing lines from A Midsummer Night’s Dream or learning to appreciate the works of Beethoven and Schumann.

Domestic arts remained an important part of the program, at least in the early years. Mrs. Choate personally handed out Prize Day awards in cooking and sewing in 1896.

But by that time, Ruutz-Rees was reportedly already in conversations to relocate Rosemary Hall to another part of the state, where she could prepare girls for opportunities as she saw fit. The Choates were looking ahead, too, to the fall of 1896, when the new Choate School would welcome its first four students to Wallingford.

Caroline Ruutz-Rees, 1894.

BULLETIN | FALL 2014 13

Rosemary Hall basketball team, 1899. Rosemary Hall won its first match ever when challenged by the New Haven Normal School in 1894

c o m m o n r o o t s

s h a r e d

Rosemary Hall Constitution from 1913-14 Handbook

“A girl too anxious to please does not make a good committeeman, but, then, neither does one whose self-satisfied noise is always in the air. The committee is the executive of your own laws and that fact should be always before both them and you.”

–caroline ruutz-rees letter to girls, october 31, 1905

p u r p o s e

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1905 Boys baseball team Portrait of Mark Pitman, first headmaster of The Choate School, 1896-1905 Mountain Day, 1901. On the first day of spring, the whole school piled into a large wagon and headed for the nearby hills to picnic. Dr. Huntington Atwater is pictured at far left.

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“It seemed that the most useful private school for boys – the type of school most needed in the community – should be, not in name only, but in reality, a home school – a school in which the boys should fall under influences similar to those which they would be subject to in a well-regulated family.”

–judge choate recalling headmaster mark pitman’s founding vision in a 1906 speech at the school

Judge William G. Choate.

Tinted miniature painted on ivory, undated

TOO MANY BOYS, IN THEIR VIEW, WERE COMING OF AGE WITHOUT THE BENEFIT OF RIGOROUS SCHOLASTIC TRAINING IN A LOVING HOME ENVIRONMENT.

Judge Choate tapped his friend Mark Pitman, an experienced New Haven teacher, to lead a school where boys as young as nine would study subjects from math to literature and drama as part of a well-rounded education. Judge Choate recalled Pitman’s founding vision in a 1906 speech at the School.

“To him,” Judge Choate said, “it seemed that the most useful private school for boys – the type of school most needed in the community – should be, not in name only, but in reality, a home school – a school in which the boys should fall under influences similar to those which they would be subject to in a well-regulated family.”

As both the visionary and first headmaster of the boys’ school, Pitman created with his own hands what he thought a “home school” should be. The trappings of family life were everywhere. Students lived in Squire Stanley, where they began their days with family-style prayers and studied academic subjects with Pitman, who earned a reputation for fatherly strictness. Mrs. Choate’s brother, Dr. Huntington Atwater, taught gardening and woodworking.

Pitman’s three daughters worked as assistants and instructors in piano, voice, and art, which gave the boys what was seen as an essential motherly presence in their lives.

The School was to be a place “where relationships between boys and masters would be of an intimate character that exists between a boy and his parents, and where also the influence of a woman – the integral part of every true home – should be distinctly felt in refining the manner and character of the pupils,” Judge Choate recalled.

Like any good home, The Choate School offered many types of wholesome recreation. Camping and canoe outings on the Quinnipiac River felt like braving the Amazon, as John Dos Passos, Class of 1911, recalled decades later, even though the water smelled of whale oil soap from Meriden’s silver factories upriver.

Every season brought its distinct joys. “I remember wonderful bobsledding and tobogganing,” Dos Passos said in his recollection. “What I particularly enjoyed was taking hitches … on the baker’s and the milkman’s sleighs and being towed for miles around the countryside.”

This original home school vision fit what could barely be called a campus in those days. The main buildings of both schools – Squire Stanley for boys, Atwater House for girls – could easily be mistaken for ordinary residences rather than school buildings. Such homey environs seemed, at the time, essential to the Choate vision. But, as at Rosemary Hall, early hallmarks of a Choate education would soon give way to a broader, bolder interpretation of the core mission.

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ALONG THE WAY, CHOATE AND ROSEMARY HALL WOULD SPEND FOUR YEARS GROWING SIDE-BY-SIDE.

The fit could be awkward at times. Rosemary’s students were older than Choate’s, in some cases by nearly 10 years, and their school was maturing as quickly as its students.

Rosemary traditions were becoming firmly established, such as the Sixth Form Walk, which was more a pilgrimage than a stroll. Girls would cover the countryside, logging some 45 miles over several days. Their triumphant return involved marching arm-in-arm down Christian Street as they sang the 23rd Psalm.

Meanwhile, Choate boys were supplementing their academics with any measure of practical skill they could pick up and immediately deploy. Dr. Atwater, the school physician, engaged “their minds for future usefulness” by teaching basic carpentry and gardening, according to recollections of Marvin Vincent, Class of 1904. Chores were indispensable; the School couldn’t be built without them.

“What work was put on our tennis court!” Vincent recalled. “From early morning till supper time we hoed and raked and really succeeded admirably.”

Despite some age differences, boys and girls still found occasional opportunities to mingle. At Halloween 1899, Choate boys invited the Rosemary girls to a dance. Much to their delight, the young ladies arrived in costume as dairy maids and princesses. Boys, dressed up as kings and Indians, twirled their guests by the light of jack-o-lanterns.

The next year, however, Ruutz-Rees made a move that would set her stamp on Rosemary Hall. With support from Greenwich businessman Julian Curtiss and others, she relocated Rosemary Hall to Greenwich, where Curtiss set up a corporation for the School and made Ruutz-Rees the largest shareholder. Now she’d be fully free to interpret how girls might be empowered for opportunity – not only through training for existing women’s roles but also for new ones rising on the horizon.

1900 – The Shop in The Cabin, where boys made miniature sailboats, stuffed owls, or catalogued their collection of rocks. From Choate Rosemary Hall: A History of the School, 1997.

RIGHT The Sixth Form Walk, which varied from year to year, took roughly three days to complete. The final ceremony was The Hanging of the Frying Pans on the walls of the Choate family's barn, inscribed with the name of each hiker.

The headmistress left her mark in the classroom. She taught English literature, Greek, and Latin. On Sundays, she hosted students in her living room for Bible study.

Girls found her enigmatic ways unforgettable, even seven decades later.

“Everybody loved her,” said Polly Curtiss Pease, RH 1902, in a 1971 recollection. “She was very … well, you never knew quite what she was going to say or do.” This spontaneity is evidenced in a letter to the girls in the Sixth Form dated September 30, 1905 urging them to take charge of their education.

“The gist of the matter is that facts are dead things and their acquisition is only a means to an end. It is the relations between them and your discovery of these relations, the relations of the particular to the universal and your discovery of it that is the valuable thing in intellectual education.”

Rosemary Hall grew quickly in directions that reflected Ruutz-Rees’ priorities. As early as 1903, girls began collecting stones for what became St. Bede’s Chapel. A 40-student dormitory was built, as was a new outdoor track. By 1909, students were gathering daily for morning and evening services inside St. Bede’s, where Episcopal worship gave the school its spiritual anchor. The next year, faculty member Mary Elizabeth Lowndes became co-headmistress at Ruutz-Rees’ invitation. And in 1911, Ruutz-Rees’ mother, Janet, established the Kindly Club “to spread the spirit of kindliness throughout the school.”

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Rosemary traditions were becoming firmly established, such as the Sixth Form Walk, which was more a pilgrimage than a stroll.

Girls would cover the countryside, logging some 45 miles over several days. Their triumphant return involved marching arm-in-arm down Christian Street as they sang the 23rd Psalm.

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Rosemary Hall, Greenwich campus, 1908.

Far left, St. Bede's Chapel under construction.

Rosemary Hall girls toted stones from an adjoining farm for the foundation.

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We all knew that we were a small school and young: only by the character of our School, by strengthening good tradition and establishing new, could we hope to make the present-day Choate a future-day Choate that we could take pride in. –george st. john, forty years at school THE CHOATE SCHOOL, MEANWHILE, WAS GOING THROUGH ITS OWN REINVENTION. After Mark Pitman

Welcome message to boys from Headmaster George St. John, 1914.

died in 1905, the future was uncertain while a series of short-term headmasters tried to hold the rudder steady.

Judge Choate had been personally underwriting the institution’s yearly losses for more than a decade and wanted out. How would the School survive without his financial support? Would it have to close, thus leaving no educational legacy for the Choate and Atwater families in Wallingford, despite almost 20 years of trying?

Such questions loomed prior to the 1908 arrival of George St. John, a Harvard-trained English teacher who accepted the precarious job of headmaster. He would begin with a modest 51 students, five “masters” (teachers), and two frame buildings on 10 acres. But Choate wouldn’t stay that size for long.

St. John took the job on a handshake with Judge Choate.

The agreement said he would not only oversee the School’s affairs but also incorporate the institution. He did as promised, establishing a corporation that would sell shares in the School. Shares paid six percent per annum. St. John became a major stockholder, relieved Judge Choate of financial responsibility for the School, and, like Ruutz-Rees, brought a radical reinterpretation to bear on Pitman’s original vision.

For the new headmaster, a “home school” didn’t have to look or feel like a family residence. In fact, the campus should bespeak an institution that wouldn’t ever fail or see its buildings reconverted to standard housing. Thus came the idea for Hill House, whose bricks and pillars would state unequivocally that the School was here to stay. The sale of stock to 34 shareholders helped raise the $40,000 needed to build Hill House, whose tall white columns and hilltop location announced a new era had arrived.

Completed in November 1911, it fast became the permanent center of daily life on campus.

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The Choate School faculty 1908-1909. Standing from left: George St. John (Headmaster, English), Parker Wilder (Bookkeeper), Raymond Grover (Math, Science), and Wendell Brooks (Latin, Greek).

Seated from left: Bartol Parker (Lower School, Athletics), Paul Temple (Senior Master, German, French), Dr. H. C. Atwater (School Physician), and Ray Brown (Head of Lower School, Math).

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With the Hill House, tentative building at Choate was out; by its shape and architecture it committed itself to being a Choate main building and decreed that the School could never move. It gave Choate a center – made Choate for the first time, look like a school.” –george st. john, forty years at school

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Choate School campus by Richard Rummel, 1911.

Hill House (top left) was completed in 1911 and became a symbol of a new era in The Choate School history.

WITH HILL HOUSE A REALITY , Choate’s campus was

coming to reflect St. John’s fresh understanding of how best to become a top-notch “home school.” To educate boys in a loving and supportive environment, he felt they needed something beyond an idealized, family-style residential experience. Three years prior, he’d come to believe they needed a larger scale of offerings – in academics, sports, theater, and other enrichment activities – so that every boy could be nurtured and, most important, challenged on the right level for him.

“The reason we can’t do more individual work is because the school is small,” St. John wrote in a 1908 notebook, as he recalls in his memoir, Forty Years at School (Henry Holt, 1959). “If Choate were larger, there would be enough boys with practically the same needs to make divisions in each subject suited to each one.”

Growing bigger was essential to getting better, St. John believed, and he wasted no time scaling up. During his first 10 years at the helm, Choate would grow nearly fivefold, from 50 to 230 students.

By the time World War I began in 1914, both Choate and Rosemary Hall were firmly established on their new trajectories. Both were growing their campus footprints as well as their national reputations. ■

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grit & determination the war years / 1915-1940

Troubling events in Europe stirred discussion and concern on both campuses through 1916, but they didn’t disrupt or reorder daily life. In many ways, the War still felt far away.

All that would change dramatically when America entered the War in April 1917. Both schools would re-examine their priorities in light of the sacrifices all Americans were asked to make. Reinterpreting core missions would again be necessary – and would further define what types of schools these two would become.

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NOSTALGIA } from the Archives

choate 10 0 y e a rs in t he boat B y B e n j a m i n F. S y l v e S t e r

It was John Dos Passos ’11 who made Choate waterconscious. “Community Lake is the Amazon,” he wrote.

“A wonderful place for Choate boys to boat and canoe.”

They did, on a five-eighths-mile piece of the Quinnipiac River held together by a fragile dam on the way to New Haven.

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Community Lake, 1915

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Coach Austin Meeks, Choate 1916 and Woody Tappen, Choate 1925.

IN 1913, TRUSTEE NATHANIEL BISHOP OFFERED A BOATHOUSE , two fours, and oars for a rowing program.

By the end of the 20th century dozens of coaches and thousands of boys and girls had rowed for the School.

But it hasn’t been easy.

Community Lake was no Amazon when I arrived in 1954. It was down to half a mile, shallow, weedy, and heavily polluted. For mileage, Yalie Austin Meeks (Choate 1916) took the varsity crews to Yale. The boys responded with five Yale Interscholastic Championships in the 1920s.

Rowing against top American school crews like Kent, Culver, Browne and Nichols and Tabor, along with the Columbia, MIT, and Princeton frosh, Choate repaid Yale with Woodruff “Woody” Tappen 1925, who went to Yale and won two races against Harvard.

It was a 20-minute trip to New Haven Harbor, but 45 minutes to Derby, where Yale moved its rowing in 1923.

In 1937, Choate’s faculty told Meeks to bring crew home, built him a $15,000 boathouse on Community Lake, and made Choate rowing intramural. The teams were named Bishops and Tappens from 1937 to 1954, and the sport remained popular, with a quarter of the School rowing, a higher percentage than at Yale.

But the intramural rowing standard wasn’t that high, and Meeks persuaded then-Headmaster Seymour St. John to resume interscholastic competition in 1954.

Winning was hard, with only a half mile of practice water for the fours and eights (but easier for single sculling). The short lake did not keep Peter Johnson ’64 from learning to scull, and then winning U.S. and Canadian schoolboy singles and doubles championships in 1963 and 1964. In the Diamonds at Henley in 1964, he was narrowly defeated by Argentine Olympian Alberto Demiddi.

Johnson’s success on the short lake inspired later Choate scullers to win the New Englands 10 times.

From left: Austin Meeks 1916, Leonard Brown 1916, Lindsay Faye 1916, and Dudley Walker 1917, with Allen Johnson 1918, coxswain, in front.

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A plaque from the Meeks Boathouse celebrating the races with the Columbia freshmen and Choate students, held in fours and eights from 1926-36, and again from 1960-1972. The lion was Columbia’s emblem and the crest was Choate’s. Choate tied Columbia in 1929.

For mileage, Yalie Austin Meeks (Choate 1916) took the varsity crews to Yale. The boys responded with five Yale Interscholastic Championships in the 1920s.

Choate Crew, 1918. Nearing the finish against Yale.

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Headmaster George St. John had put Domonic “Skipper” DeBaise in charge at Community Lake in 1937, including a cottage addition for his family. Forty-two years at Community Lake had endeared Skipper to generations of Choate rowers, and 135 of them came forward with funds for the new boathouse in 1984.

Alumni Boathouse, 1937

The short lake also did not keep the Rev. Robert Bryan, Meeks’ successor, from arriving in his seaplane on Community Lake in 1963. Coaching trips to rival Connecticut and Massachusetts lakes were possible, except during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, when the Community Lake Seaplane Base was declared closed.

Takeoffs and crew practices became easier in 1964, when Bryan persuaded Headmaster St. John and the Trustees to dredge a 3,900-foot channel. The lengthened distance came just in time for an invitation to join the three-mile Head of the Charles Regatta in Cambridge, Mass., where Sculler Lee Chu ’67 (now Lee Cole-Chu) won a medal and assistant coach Ben Sylvester took third in the veterans race. Headmaster St. John applauded, and since 1966 Choate crews have gone to the Charles.

In the late 1960s, silting began to fill the channel, and by the time Bryan’s successor, Colin McDougall, arrived, Community Lake was down to 2,000 feet. Oxford rower McDougall preached “mileage makes champions,” and he knew where to find it. In 1967, he took the first Thames Group summer holiday to London, rowing the 100 miles to Oxford and racing Eton, Shiplake, Pangbourne, Radley, and St. Edwards along the way. Twelve Thames Groups have gone to England since 1967, most recently with Coach Tom White in 2005 at Henley.

Coach Ed Miller introduced girls rowing in 1973 with boats borrowed from the boys, and by 1975 they had a 5-l record.

In 1977, a girls four, boys four, and three coaches loaded their boats on a Maxiwagon and drove to Ottawa to accept an invitation to the Head of the Rideau Regatta. At the ceremony after the regatta, Queen Elizabeth II, celebrating her Silver Jubilee, and Prince Philip, greeted Choate coxswains Geoffrey Knauth ’78 and DeDe McFarlane ’79 in an honor line, and said they remembered the School.

The year 1979 brought less happy events for Choate: a 100-year flood swept away the Community Lake dam – and the lake. Unlike the Johnson Athletic Center (then called the Winter Exercise Building), destroyed by fire in 1976 and quickly and gracefully restored, the Lake was not.

It would have cost $3 million.

Choate Rosemary Hall crew no longer had a home.

Middletown High School offered rack space on the Connecticut River from 1979 until 1981, when Choate coaches rented an empty dairy barn on mile-long Lake Quonnipaug in Guilford. The barn, at $15 a week, replaced smaller facilities at Dinwoodies’s Dance Hall at the Town Beach, where Choate varsity crews had gone to escape Community Lake weeds and silting. Crews traveled from Wallingford in minibuses and did not mind the 25-minute trips.

But the barn was on the other side of state Route 77 from the lake, and crossing with 60-foot eights was a challenge.

When parent Pen Jarvis ’57 discovered that his daughter Lisa ’83, captain of girls crew, had only three seconds to get her crew across Route 77, he offered $10,000 toward a

BULLETIN | FALL 2014 27 Former history teacher and coach Benjamin F. Sylvester, left, retired in 1994 after 40 years at school.

new boathouse on the lake side of the street. While coaches searched for land, Lisa kept her crew safe enough to win Choate’s first New England Interscholastic Rowing Association championship in l983. A parcel of land was found at the north end of the lake, and a fund drive was launched with Pen Jarvis and Boatman Domonic “Skipper” DeBaise as co-chairmen. It was Skipper’s second boathouse.

Choate parent John Brayshaw of Middlefield was persuaded by his son, Jon ’85, to design the boathouse, a handsome two-level structure with racks for 16 boats.

Brayshaw’s uncles built the boathouse, and 14,000 roof shingles were nailed down by Jon for his Senior Spring Project.

Thirty years in the new boathouse have brought success. Coach Charlie Tierney’s (’81) crew beat St. John’s High School in a thriller at Henley in 1994.

In 1997, the School Commencement audience heard a telephone message from Cincinnati, where sixth form oarsmen had gone to the Nationals in lieu of graduation and had won. Coach Dan Baker’s boys had earned the Nationals trip with a 19-1-2 season and the New England Championship.

Coach Tom White’s 1998-2010 crews were New England finalists nearly every year, and came in second (of 18 schools) six times. White bequeathed Coach Anders Swanson the 2011 crew, which took first at the New England championship regatta. The 2014 season ended with the girls program placing all four of their crews in the finals (three of which earned medals) at the New England championships. Their performance earned the squad a tie with the Windsor School for first in the race for team supremacy.

Will there be a second 100 Years?

Yes, if room can be made for 20 boats on a 100-acre lake and can cut their way through threatening Cabamba and Pondweed. One hopes weeds will not turn silvery Quonnipaug, our 21st century Amazon, into another Community Lake!

The SylveSTer yearS

Ben Sylvester’s account of 100 years of Choate crew modestly omits one important aspect of a century of Choate rowing: his own considerable involvement in the sport. Here, as they say, is “the rest of the story.”

In 2001, between the heats and the finals at the New England Interscholastic Rowing Association championships, Choate crew christened a new shell in honor of Ben Sylvester.

At the time, Ben was concluding nearly 50 years with Choate crew, and as I was preparing my remarks for the event it was painfully obvious that fully capturing what “Mr. Sylvester” had meant to the program would be an impossible task.

As I reflected on the span of Ben’s remarkable career I began to marvel at the changes that occurred during his tenure. Ben served as the bridge between Choate crew’s early history with the venerable Austin Meeks ’16 and the modern era and my own coaching; from Community Lake to his beloved Lake Quonnipaug; from a boys team to a coeducational program; and from an intramural squad to New England and national championship crews.

Worcester, Boston, Marlow, and Henley-on-Thames are all rowing venues where Ben and Choate crew are synonymous. Most important, however, are the generations of young men and women to whom he passed along his love for rowing, and the life lessons that come with mastering the rowing stroke.

Over the years, Ben has coached from the launch and his own single on beautiful fall days, windy spring afternoons, and rainy Saturday afternoons on numerous bodies of water across New England. Every time I meet with rowing alumni, invariably the first question is, “How is Mr. Sylvester doing?” The ensuing conversations make it clear how much crew meant to them while at Choate, and beyond.

Although Ben has stepped down from leading the program, he has kept a close eye on the crews, the boathouse named for him, and the lake. The shell that we christened in 2001 remains a crucial part of our fleet and has faithfully gone about helping Choate novices and NEIRA medalists alike, much as its namesake has done since 1954.

— Thomas G. White

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Feature

v o ya g e of

discovery by ellen q. devine

on july 11, 2014, in the middle of my own sabbatical, i found myself standing on the sidewalk at 174 rue saint jacques, caroline ruutz-rees' home while she lived in paris, with a well-worn copy of her letters in my hand.

From September 1905 until June 1906, Caroline RuutzRees, founding headmistress of Rosemary Hall, traveled throughout Europe on a yearlong sabbatical. She devoted the first few months to visiting major cities on the continent, but spent the majority of her time living and studying in Paris. In the year she was away she pursued independent research at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, focusing mostly on 16th century French poetry.

Throughout the time she was away, she sent 23 letters to the students of Rosemary Hall. In those, she offered her thoughts on such varied topics as the importance of efficiency, how to create and maintain a strong community, how best to prepare for college, and the definition and value of a good education. From thousands of miles away and from the opposite side of the Atlantic, Ruutz-Rees reminded her students that “a pile of material is not a work of art – it lies with the artist to make it so; and in the same way, the accumulation of facts and methods does not constitute an education. You must use your own powers upon it … every lesson can be some sort of voyage of discovery.”

When I had envisioned my sabbatical, I had not imagined that my travels would bring me to Ruutz-Rees' former doorstep. In fact, I had no intention of mimicking her sabbatical travels. Instead, I planned to spend two weeks traveling with a similar mindset as Caroline RuutzRees. What is unique about her approach, and worthy of imitation in my estimation, is that as an educator, RuutzRees valued and sought out opportunities to learn new lessons by embarking on literal voyages of discovery, just as she had encouraged Rosemarians to go on figurative voyages while in school in Greenwich. Though she never articulated her philosophy in this way, Ruutz-Rees seemed to understand innately that an educator must, on occasion, remove herself from those arenas in which she is authority and master, and welcome the chance to be new and vulnerable.

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Caroline Ruutz-Rees in 1906 at age 42 pictured here with her dog “Mopi”.

174 Rue Saint Jacques, Paris. Doorstep of Caroline Ruutz-Rees’ home, while on sabbatical from Rosemary Hall (1905-1906).

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The Louvre Pyramid,

by I.M. Pei

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Entryway to 174 Rue Saint Jacques, now a modern wine store

Restaurant Perraudin, established in 1872.

Perhaps Caroline had a meal here.

My husband, Michael, and I began our own voyage of discovery in northern Spain. Eager to embrace the newness, openness, and balance alluded to in Ruutz-Rees’ letters, we packed up our rental car, bought a map, and drove off in search of great adventures, with only our wits and our high-school-level Spanish to guide us. The failures were embarrassing, the successes exhilarating, and the revelation clear: travel, like education, forces failure, discomfort, and vulnerability while granting opportunities for success, mastery, and confidence. This concept seemed to be a tenet of Ruutz-Rees’ pedagogy from the beginning.

She consistently exposed herself to new challenges, never asking more of her students than she asked of herself.

When we arrived in Paris, I sought out where RuutzRees had spent her sabbatical as a small pilgrimage in honor of my historical mentor, an homage to the sabbatical that had influenced and shaped mine. So, one pleasant afternoon in July, I arrived at 174 Rue Saint Jacques.

The address is now home to a wine store with a modern, drab exterior. The buildings around 174, however, were built in the 19th century or earlier, so elements of the neighborhood have remained in the century since RuutzRees lived there. The iconic sights of Paris that she passed each day on her walk to and from the Bibliotheque Nationale have survived as well.

The Bibliotheque Nationale de France, where Caroline Ruutz-Rees pursued her independent research.

My companions on this pilgrimage were Michael and my great friend, colleague, and guide, Meghan Hazard. We followed Ruutz-Rees’ daily walk just as she described it to the Rosemarians. We browsed for books on the quais; we crossed the Seine on the Pont Neuf; we walked between the Louvre and Palais Royale, wondering what Ruutz-Rees would think of I.M. Pei’s glass pyramid (or the fact that the campus where Rosemary Hall was founded has two I.M. Pei buildings of its own). Eventually, we arrived at the library, where she conducted research that would later inform her doctoral dissertation. In 1910, in her twentieth year as headmistress of Rosemary Hall, she would be awarded her Ph.D. from Columbia University.

In one of the first letters to the Rosemarians, RuutzRees wrote: “The gist of the matter is that facts are dead things and their acquisition is only a means to an end. It is the relations between them… the relations of the particular to the universal and your discovery of it that is the valuable thing in intellectual education.” As I retraced her steps that day, I realized that the changes that would make 21st century Paris unrecognizable to Ruutz-Rees are like the facts described above, insignificant in and of themselves.

Rather, it is the relationship between the particulars of my life and of Ruutz-Rees’, the particulars of each of our journeys, and the revelation of the universal link between travel and education that stands out as the lesson from this modern yet vintage voyage of discovery.

Ellen Q. Devine is head of the English department at Choate Rosemary Hall.

The gist of the matter is that facts are dead things and their acquisition is only a means to an end. It is the relations between them … the relations of the particular to the universal and your discovery of it that is the valuable thing in intellectual education.

–CAROLINE RUUTZ-REES

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ALUMNI ASSOCIATION | News & Events choate rosemary hall alumni association mission To create, perpetuate, and enhance relationships among Choate Rosemary Hall alumni, current and prospective students, faculty, staff, and friends in order to foster loyalty, interest, and support for the School and for one another, and to build pride, spirit, and community.

OFFICERS Patrick McCurdy ’98 President Chris Vlasto ’84 Vice President Parisa Jaffer ’89 Secretary STANDING COMMITTEES Admission Colm Rafferty ’94 Gunther Hamm ’98 Co-Chairs Annual Fund David Hang ’94 Chair Communications Michelle Judd Rittler ’98 Chair Nominating/Prize Chris Hodgson ’78 Chair Regional Clubs John Smyth ’83 Chair Carolyn Kim ’96 Vice-Chair Student Relations/Campus Programming Mike Furgueson ’80 Chair Shantell Richardson ’99 Vice-Chair ADDITIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS Dan Courcey ’86 Executive Director of Development and Alumni Relations Mari Jones Director of Development Monica St. James Director of Alumni Relations Leigh Dingwall ’84 Rachel Gritzer Faculty Representatives

REGIONAL CLUB LEADERSHIP Boston Patrick Clendenen ’84 Lovey Oliff ’97 Connecticut David Aversa ’91 Katie Vitali Childs ’95 London Kate Aquila ’92 Los Angeles Tom Nieman ’88 Stan Savage ’92 New York Jason Kasper ’05 Eliza Buddenhagen ’06 Rosemary Hall Alice Chaffee Freeman ’63 San Francisco John Smyth ’83 Washington, D.C. Patrick Holley ’90 Anna Lindel ’03 Beijing Gunther Hamm ’98 Hong Kong Ronna Chao Heffner ’85 P. Jamie O’Donnell ’80 Seoul Ryan Hong ’89 Thailand Sunpitt Sethpornpong ’84 Chali Sophonpanich ’79

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION PAST PRESIDENTS Chris Hodgson ’78 Susan Barclay ’85 Woody Laikind ’53

TOP LEFT Headmaster Alex

Curtis with Distinguished Service Award Winner Connie Ferguson '69 TOP RIGHT Distinguished Service Award Winner Ted Little ’49

BOTTOM LEFT Tom Yankus ’52 at the dedication of Ayres-Yankus Field.

BOTTOM RIGHT The Ayres Family was on hand for the dedication of Ayres-Yankus Field over Reunion Weekend.

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Ayres-Yankus Field Dedication

Reunion success

WITH MORE THAN 800 GUESTS IN ATTENDANCE – from

members of the Class of 1936 right on up to the Class of 2013 – and the sun shining brightly most of the weekend, Reunion Weekend 2014 was a resounding success, and, in the words of many alums, the “best reunion yet!”

From tours of campus, including the Kohler Environmental Center, to Saturday’s symposiums, and from the lawn games to the inspiring chapel service and student concerts, Reunion Weekend had something for everyone. The large tent on the Great Lawn was a huge hit, and, once lit up, illuminated much of its side of campus. Thanks to all our alumni who turned out in force to make this weekend extra special and truly one to remember!

2014 Distinguished Service Awards congratulations to our honorees! During a special ceremony on Saturday afternoon of Reunion Weekend 2014, Ted Little ’49 and Connie Ferguson ’69 were awarded the 2014 Distinguished Service Awards.

It was Ted Little who funded the commissioning of the busts of former heads of School that are displayed in the Sculpture Garden at the Sally Hart

Lodge & Alumni Center. Additionally, Ted is the man behind the new Headmaster’s residence, Phoebe House, in honor of Phoebe Dey, wife of former head of school Charles F. Dey. What better way to honor this remarkably generous alumnus than to present him with the Distinguished Service Award.

A former member of the Board of Trustees, Connie Ferguson's work behind the scenes is what truly sets her apart and makes such recognition long overdue. Connie has been generous in many respects, not the least of which is her dedication to her fellow Rosemarians in combination with her true commitment to Choate Rosemary Hall. Just as Connie is vital to us in many ways so are all Rosemarians to the legacy of our School, and there is no finer way to represent this than to honor Connie with the Distinguished Service Award.

Sunday morning of Reunion Weekend was reserved for a very special event this year: the dedication of Ayres-Yankus Field, named in honor of the late Russ Ayres, Sr. and Tom Yankus ’52.

The unofficial “architect of baseball” at Choate, Russ Ayres and his devotion to the game – and its place in Choate athletics – were first honored in 1959, when the varsity baseball field was named for him following his death that same year.

Tom Yankus’ career at Choate spanned more than five decades, during which time he taught English and was a house adviser, form dean, Dean of Students, Athletic Director, and a basketball, football, volleyball, and, of course, baseball coach. Arguably, Tom’s biggest influence was on the baseball field, where he not only led his teams to victory a total of 503 times but also showed, by stellar example, hundreds of players, including at least two who have gone on to the majors, how to honor the game. Tom retired from Choate Rosemary Hall this year.

Three permanent plaques were installed on the home team’s dugout (one to honor Russ Ayres, one to honor Tom Yankus, and one to thank the donors) to ensure all players and spectators who visit the field know the significance and history behind the name.

2014 Athletics Hall of Fame Inductees The Athletics Hall of Fame at Choate Rosemary Hall was established to recognize those whose efforts and achievements enhanced the School’s athletic program and reputation. Nominations for the 2014 inductees were solicited from the greater School community, and this year’s inductees were selected by the Nominating and Prize Committee of the Alumni Association.

For the first time in its history, the Hall of Fame induction ceremony was held during Reunion Weekend and included a rousing performance by the Choate Rosemary Hall Step Squad.

The 2014 inductees are: Linda Berry Trimble ’54 (basketball, field hockey, & tennis) Adam Bianchi ’57 (baseball, basketball, soccer, tennis) Gail Hearn Capelovitch ’77 (hockey, lacrosse, soccer) Mathieu Darche ’96 (hockey, football) Jim Davidson – faculty (coach: girls basketball, cross county, and track) Russ Ayres, Sr. (deceased; coach: baseball, golf, hockey) Boys ’63 Varsity Soccer (1963 New England Champs) Girls ’89 Varsity Basketball (1989 New England Champs)

We are now accepting applications for future inductees into the Athletics Hall of Fame at Choate Rosemary Hall. Fill out the nomination form on the Choate website under About Choate/Notable Alumni and get the process started.

34

Transition Dinner On April 17, the Choate Rosemary Hall Alumni Association welcomed its newest – and youngest – members at the annual Alumni/Sixth-Form Transition Dinner. From the wisdom of Chris Hodgson ’78 to the rallying cry of Jason Kasper ’05, our sixth formers had fun with classmates and visiting alumni alike.

The evening was capped off by the highly anticipated distribution of the blue Alumni Association vests, which we hope will be lovingly and proudly worn for years to come. Congratulations to the Class of 2014!

2014 Alumni Awards Geoff Cowan ’60 and Amy Lehman ’91 were the 2014 recipients of the Choate Rosemary Hall Alumni Award, the highest honor bestowed upon an alumnus or alumna by the School. The awards were presented during an all-School meeting on April 23.

Geoff was honored for his distinguished career in promoting the greater good through communications, including his influence in the fields of law and public policy, broadcasting and journalism, and the humanities and higher education.

Amy was honored for the humanitarian work she is doing with the Lake Tanganyika Floating Health Clinic (LTFHC), which she founded. The LTFHC strives to address the problem of health care access for millions of people who live in the Lake Tanganyika Basin/ Great Lakes region of Central Africa.

Both awardees took time after the ceremony to meet with students and answer their questions, visit classes most relevant to their areas of expertise, and motivate students to strive for excellence no matter their passion.

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2015 Alumni Award and can be submitted to alumnirelations@choate.edu.

Regional Club Events Santiago Caraballo ’95 took the reins and helped the Alumni Office coordinate an event at the Heights Lodge in Houston on April 23. Nearly 30 people attended, and many made some great connections while they were there, including one via EverTrue.

While Andrea Solomon of the Alumni Relations Office was explaining EverTrue to the crowd, two alums in the room discovered for the first time that they live around the corner from each other! Have you downloaded EverTrue yet?

On April 27, the LA Regional Club hosted their annual brunch at the Gilmore Adobe, a much-beloved spring tradition. Hosted by LA Club Co-Chairs Stan Savage ’92 and Tom Nieman ’88, this event is always a smash hit, and this year was no exception with nearly 100 alums in attendance along with special guests, Ed and Susan Maddox.

The San Francisco Giants met the D.C. Nationals on June 11, and there to watch the game was a nice crowd of Choate alums, all of whom were greeted by Melanie Seto ’05. The festive atmosphere wasn’t even dampened by the Giants’ loss.

More than 80 alums came out for the NYC Summer Social at the Frying Pan on June 19. This lively crowd enjoyed the great location and the views it afforded.

In more baseball fun, on July 22, Choate Rosemary Hall was there when the Seattle Mariners took on the New York Mets. The small but enthusiastic crowd had a great time rooting for the home team and would encourage other Seattle-area alum to join in the fun next time around! And, on July 29, alumni gathered at Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox play the Toronto Blue Jays.

1

Work for a Nonprofit? Have Brunch on Us! Choate Rosemary Hall is putting out a call for alumni who work in the nonprofit sector to participate in a Career Networking brunch, to be held on October 12, at Sally Hart Lodge & Alumni Center. Talk to current Choate students interested in the nonprofit sector about your organization and your day-to-day work.

Interested? Please contact Monica St. James at mstjames@choate.edu. We look forward to hearing from you – as do our students!

2

Deerfield Day 2014: Unhinge the Doors!

This year, Deerfield Day will be held on Sunday, November 9, 2014. This tradition has its origins back in 1922, when the Choate School’s football team beat Deerfield 28-7. Today, Deerfield Day is so big and so popular that the festivities kick off with an evening pep rally and bonfire.

Leading up to Deerfield Day is the Deerfield Challenge, a competition based only on alumni participation in each School’s respective annual fund.

Simply put, Choate alumni need to give more gifts to our annual fund than Deerfield alumni give to theirs.

The competition is tight each year, and our record stands at 2-4; last year we lost by only nine points/gifts, so we consider this the year of the Wild Boar Comeback!

Plus, in 2014, we have home field advantage!

So join us: Wear your gold and blue, prepare to cheer loudly, and make the trip to Wallingford to be a part of this year’s Deerfield Day!

3

4

Choate Rosemary Hall’s 125th Celebration In 2015 Choate Rosemary Hall will be marking its 125th milestone. In celebration of this momentous occasion, we will be holding a series of special events throughout the 2014-2015 school year and beyond both on campus and around the world.

The official kickoff to the celebration is Sunday, November 9, 2014: Deerfield Day. While many of the festivities are still in the planning stages, we know that a highlight of the year will be the March 2015 grand opening of our new math, computer science, and robotics facility.

Watch your email, along with the Choate Rosemary Hall eNews, for more information on upcoming events, off-campus celebrations, and special on-campus happenings.

5

BULLETIN | FALL 2014 35

Calendar of Events September 9/13 – Alumni Soccer – Choate 9/13 – Alumnae Volleyball – Choate 9/13 – Harriman Cup – Long Island 9/18 – Chicago Headmaster Reception 9/28 – DC Nationals vs. Miami Marlins

October 10/11 – Jack Davison Dedication – Choate 10/12 – Career Networking Brunch: Nonprofits 10/18 – Head of the Charles Regatta – Boston

November 11/9 – Deerfield Day

December

6 7

12/11 – NYC Holiday Party CALL TO ACTION – CAREER MENTORS WANTED Three career-oriented alumni/student Sunday brunches

8

will be hosted by the Alumni Association in the 2014-2015 academic year during scheduled Community Weekends.

The dates are as follows: Sunday, October 12, 2014 – Topic: Working in Nonprofits Sunday, January 11, 2015 - Topic: Working in the Arts Sunday, May 24, 2015 – Topic: Working in Education

9

1 Headmaster Alex Curtis with Alumni

3 Houston gathering – Santiago ’95

5 NYC Summer Social –Kendall Dacey

7 Houston – Rebecca Leven ’06,

Award Winners Geoffrey Cowan ’60 and Amy Lehman ’91 2 Jason Kasper ’05 and Chris Hodgson ’78 at the 2014 Transition Dinner

and Amy Caraballo and Ivan Chen ’86 4 NYC Summer Social – Halley Cruice ’11, Alec Barnett ’09, Nolan Stewart ’09, and Jamie Williams ’11

’06, Katie Hartsoe ’06, David Guernsey ’05, and Eliza Buddenhagen ’06 6 Seattle – Alumni and their family and friends at Safeco Field

Erica Winston ’08, Aisha Kibwana ’08, and Lin Zhu ’04 8 L.A. Brunch – Tom Nieman ’88, Ed Maddox, and Stan Savage ’92

9 Choate took Giants fans out to a

ballgame!

10 Despite the Red Sox loss, alumni

enjoyed their evening at Fenway.

36

CLASSNOTES | News from our Alumni

Send Us Your Notes!

We welcome your submission of classnotes or photos electronically in a .jpg format to alumline@choate.edu.

When submitting photos, please make sure the resolution is high enough for print publication – 300 dpi preferred.

If your note or photograph does not appear in this issue, it may appear in a subsequent issue, or be posted online to Alumni News on www.choate.edu.

To update your alumni records, email: alumnirelations@choate.edu or contact Christine Bennett at (203) 697-2228.

Unidentified photograph, from a 1906 scrapbook donated by Zeda Thompson Dean, Courtesy of the Choate Rosemary Hall Archives.

BULLETIN | FALL 2014 37

Choate was the basis of my education, of my religious beliefs, and my love of singing, literature, history, music, and athletics, and it lead me to a career in medicine. It established my mores and social life in my teens and allowed me to move onto meaningful relationships later on.

–HERMAN F. FROEB

’42

1930s ’38 C

Tom McMorrow reports that “as I knock wood that I am at 93 and in good health here in the Actors’ Fund Home in Englewood, N.J., as is my wife, Joan, one of the pictures on our wall is of Tom Yankus’s ’52 class all holding up copies of my book, Having Fun with Words of Wit and Wisdom. Here's my e-mail address in case anyone wants to contact me. It is tmagga@aol. com, and thereby hangs a tale: In my fifth form year, 1936–37, there were three of us in side-by-side single rooms on that great man E. Stanley Pratt’s corridor in the Hill House, Bob (Robert Scarlett) De Sousa, Art (Arthur R.) Bell ’39, and me. We called ourselves the Three Waggas: the Magga, the Da, and, keeping it alliterative, the Basher. The following year’s copy of The Brief referred to our “playful violations” of the Steele Law, ever alert for violations of the code: ’We don’t do that at Choate.’ One other reminiscence, pertinent here: On a day when my father, a prominent author, came up to school to speak, we were walking into the dining hall when a boy was heard to say ’There goes the Magga, with Mister Magga.’ Thus, tmagga@aol.com.”

1940s ’42 C

Herman F. Froeb, and his wife, Helen Kiddoo Froeb, recently celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary. See photo on this page.

’44 C

Congratulation to the 70th Reunion Class (all 26 members) for 100 percent participation to the Annual Fund!

Bill Weigle writes, “If any Choaties come to Great Barrington or Egremont, Mass., my wife, Jamie, and I would love to have them stop in and share their stories about Choate with us.”

’46 C

Congratulation to the Class of 1946 for the 20th consecutive year of 100 percent giving to the Annual Fund!

1950s ’50 C

Jay Davis writes, “After many happy winters in New England, which included teaching skiing, we’ve moved full time to Sarasota, Fla., a city we’ve been visiting and enjoying for many years. Now to go skiing, I’ll have get on a plane. Next year is our 65th Reunion and I look forward to being there and hope that other ’50s will make the trip back to Wallingford.”

’52 C

Dick Boynton writes, “After serving as President of Space Electronics, Inc., for 46 years, I have finally retired. My wife Nancy died of cancer in 2010. We had been married for 52 years. I then met a Canadian woman, Layne, while I was on a trip to Borneo in 2011, and fell in love. We got married in December 2013, and now split our time between our houses in Connecticut and Vancouver, Canada.

It’s an amazing experience to have a new wife, a new country, and many new friends.”

38 CLASSNOTES

2

1

who serve on an Achievement First charter school in Hartford. I am also a part-time lobbyist for Northeast Charter Schools Network, which advocates for all the charter schools in N.Y.C and Conn. It was great fun last winter to participate in a conference on education reform in New York City with both Ed Shanahan and Alex Curtis in attendance. It was attended by all the other prep schools in our league, including Exeter, Andover, and Deerfield. At my age I know how very lucky I am to be involved in a movement that is changing the future for thousands of inner city children. I am still blessed with tremendous energy, which is good since I am back and forth to Bucks County, Pa., where my most special friend, Bill Marsh, lives and works. Bill and I also managed to scoot down to Naples, Fla., for a few days’ relief during the winter months, and we spent a spectacular month in Italy last fall. This fall we will spend a month in Africa.

My children and six grandchildren are all well and industrious, and with three rising junior grandsons all playing varsity sports at three different boarding schools, I have turned into a marathon cookie baker.”

4 3

’55 C

1 Dick Boynton ’52 remarried

2 Bill McConnel ’55 in Normandy

4 Cary Kelly ’60 and his wife,

in December 2013, and now he and his wife Layne split their time between their houses in Rockfall, Connecticut, and Vancouver, Canada.

for the 70th anniversary of D-Day from Omaha Beach.

3 Lou Riggio ’55 escorting his daughter Allegra down the aisle at her November 2013 wedding.

Mona, hosted John Henderson and David Brownell in Sandpoint, Idaho, in July. The classmates, pictured from left, Dave, Cary, and John, have made plans

Ed Koczak writes, “After spending a career in government service – the vast majority with various intelligence agencies but ostensibly as a Naval Officer – I dabbled in real estate in Washington, D.C., where I owned an apartment at the Watergate for more than 25 years and served for a long time on the Board of Directors there. Having become disenchanted with Washington 15 years ago, I left for a better clime here in La Jolla, Calif., closer to friends and family, including my brother-in-law, Dan Moriarty ’51. Over the years I have been to all seven continents (several times) and continue to travel despite a few setbacks including two spinal fusions and a delicate open heart procedure called a valve-sparing aortic root replacement to correct an aneurysm. Four months after cardiac re-engineering last winter found me with friends in Sri Lanka, India, the northern provinces of Myanmar, and Malaysia. July was spent in Canada and Alaska fishing and kayaking among the glaciers. If my luck and perseverance continue, I plan to return to Wallingford for my 65th reunion in 2017.”

to return next year to their 55th reunion as the “Old Guard.”

’52 RH Sidney Faithfull Van Zandt was one of three outstanding conservationists to receive the Katchen Coley Award for Excellence in Land Conservation at the 30th annual Connecticut Land Conservation Conference in March at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. The award, named in honor of Katchen Coley (1924-2013), a longtime activist for environmental and social causes, recognizes a person who embodies all that Katchen meant to land conservation: an individual fiercely devoted to land conservation, whose long-term commitment to conservation causes has furthered the work of conservation organizations in Connecticut, and who serves as an inspiration to others to continue to “fight the good fight” with passion and tenacity in support of conservation and the environment. Sidney, from Groton, Conn., was recognized for her decades of service advancing conservation locally and statewide. ’54 RH Pat Sweet writes, “I am in my tenth year of deep engagement in Connecticut charter schools.

I am on the board of an Achievement First charter school in New Haven along with former Choate Trustee colleagues Sharon Oster and Marshall Ruben (current Vice Chair of the Choate Board of Trustees),

Lou Riggio wrote to tell us about several big events in his life. His daughter Allegra married British actor Jared Harris on November 9, 2013, and he and his wife, Patricia, celebrated their 45th anniversary on May 14, 2014. Recently, Lou was elected to the Advisory Board of The Foreign Service Retirees Association of Florida. He also told us that his brother Phil ’55 has been in assisted living since suffering a stroke ten years ago. Lou and Patricia live in Hollywood, Fla.

1960s ’60 C John Boyd is proud to report the arrival of his eleventh grandchild, Joshua.

Bob Buck, Executive Director of Eastern Amputee Golf Association in Bethlehem, Pa., has been participating in a new initiative from the Department of Defense called “Inclusive Recreation for Wounded Warriors.” The four-day program was developed

by Penn State University to educate and assist Recreation Managers at our military installations at home and abroad in bringing sports and leisure activities to our wounded warriors. Bob presents a personal perspective as an amputee and promotes the benefits of golf as a perfect sport for our amputee wounded warriors. The 22 conference sessions, which began 5 years ago, will conclude in 2015.

Cary Kelly reports the following: “John Henderson and Dave Brownell visited Mona and me in Sandpoint, Idaho, in May. In addition to having a wonderful visit, we began the planning for our 55th reunion next spring at Choate. We are looking forward to seeing all of you who can make it back.”

BULLETIN | FALL 2014 39

Mary and I later had dinner with in Denver, along with Hugh’s wife, Merle. Hugh has devoted much of his life to promoting Colorado artist Vance Kirkland, and we visited the Vance Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Arts, set up by Hugh. It was fabulous – and so was Hugh and Merle’s house, which had a brilliant display of the decorative arts. It would take someone from Choate to accomplish so much. I am still running my recycling company, which I feel is unique since it accepts 40 different materials to recycle. This is very difficult but it makes my life interesting. Our kids are in business or medicine in our city so we enjoy seeing five grandchildren on a regular basis.”

’63 RH Margo Heun Bradford attended her Madeira

TOP Seth and Nancy Hoyt ’61

BOTTOM Polly Ashman

hosted Clip Kniffin and his wife Ellie, at their home on Long Lake, Minnesota in July.

Goodyear, Margo Melton Nutt, and Alice Chaffee Freeman, all RH ’63, got together for a luncheon in July at Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

’60

The Freedom Angel Foundation supports public awareness of the medical and social needs of our veterans as they transition back to civilian life. www.FreedomAngelFoundation.org.

–SCULPTURE, THE FREEDOM ANGEL, BY STERRETT-GITTINGS KELSEY RH ’60

’61 C Jonathan F. Fanton was appointed president of American Academy of Arts and Sciences last April.

(See profile on p. 40). Dr. Fanton’s appointment was announced at the academy’s spring governance meeting. Don Randel, chairman of the academy’s board of directors, said of Dr. Fanton, “[He] has demonstrated leadership in higher education, philanthropy, and public policy and is perfectly suited to lead the academy both intellectually and administratively.”

Dr. Fanton said in a statement. “I am looking forward to working with the Academy’s staff, governing bodies, and distinguished members to build upon the proud legacy of this historic institution.” Dr. Fanton received a Ph.D. in American History from Yale University, where he served as associate provost and as an assistant to President Kingman Brewster. He subsequently served as vice president for planning at the University of Chicago. He has also served as chairman of the

board of Human Rights Watch, chairman of the board of the Security Council Report, chairman of the New York State Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities, and as a member of the board of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. He is currently chairman of Scholars at Risk and a member of the boards of the Asian Cultural Council and the World Policy Institute.

He is also on the advisory committees of the Social Science Research Council and the Coalition for the International Criminal Court.

’63 C

Robert Hynson writes, “First grandchild, Madeline Davey Gardiner Hynson, born in Big Sky, Mont.”

Richard Bole writes, “Still reflecting very favorably about the wonderful time my wife, Mary, and I had at the 50th Reunion in 2013. At the event, I spoke with many classmates and wish I could see them again soon. One contact was Hugh Grant, whom

50th reunion in April (she transferred there after her junior year at Rosemary) and helped her father celebrate his 100th birthday in May.

Vicki Brooks’ daughter Katie graduated from Dartmouth’s Amos Tuck School of Business with her M.B.A. in June and is now working for J.P. Morgan in San Francisco.

Donna Dickenson reported that she and her husband, Chris, hosted Dabney Park on her visit to England last February, and they engaged in an abundance of cultural activities. Donna and Chris were in Paris in early June, where Donna was helping to lead a meeting of a new American-British-French scientific network.

Penny Griffith Dix and her husband, Dennis, went on a trip to China and Tibet in April. In early June, they drove to High Hampton, N.C., where the whole family – 15 of them – gathered for a week to hike, golf, play tennis, swim, and kayak.

Alice Chaffee Freeman escaped the long, cold Vermont winter with a March visit to Holly Smith in Vero Beach, Fla. In June, she went to Nantucket to visit Judy Hetzel Jones. And in July, she traveled to Maine with Margo Melton Nutt to visit Joanne Sullivan and Judy Donald ’66, stopping en route in Portland for lunch with Polly Ashman Goodyear. Alice was also invited to attend the Class of 1964’s 50th reunion in May, which she did with Cindy Webb Hendrick ’64.

Doreen McClennan Gardner wrote that she and Michael have a year of retirement under their belts. Much of it has been spent on “tweaks” to their new home in Morro Bay, Calif. But they have also taken several road trips, including visits to grandchildren.

Mary McGee Graf writes: “I have a project in Amenia, N.Y. Last fall I purchased the property contiguous to mine and am now working with my friend and farmer to create a sustainable farm, named Round Pond Farm. We will introduce cows to help the sustainability, Angus specifically, and that’s the breed my grandfather had! Never thought I’d be farming, let alone at this age. Then again, why not?!”

Mary is still shuttling back and forth between East and West Coasts, making almost monthly trips to check on the farm, which she originally bought in 2009.

40

CLASSNOTES | Profile

’61 Jonathan Fanton

TO SERVE THE PUBLIC GOOD When Jonathan Fanton ’61 was named president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences this past spring, he asked the society’s archivist whether there were any documents from the Academy’s earliest years. What he was shown amazed him.

“She handed me a letter,” he recalls, “and I was astounded to see that I held in my hand a handwritten letter from George Washington, dated 1781, accepting his election to the Academy.”

That’s what the American Academy of Arts and Sciences has been for almost 235 years – a uniquely prestigious society of brilliant and accomplished people.

Among its members, called Fellows, have been Thomas Jefferson, John James Audubon, Willa Cather, Washington Irving, Charles Darwin, Eudora Welty, Duke Ellington, Samuel Adams, and more than 250 winners of Nobel prizes.

But the Academy, based in Cambridge, Mass., is much more than an exclusive club for intelligent and famous men and women. In Jonathan’s words, “it is meant to be a place where people who care deeply about the country come together to talk about how to fulfill and advance the basic values that motivated the founding of our country. It’s different from most scholarly societies.”

One recent Academy project was a report on the humanities and the social sciences called “The Heart of the Matter.” It describes “the importance of the humanities and social sciences in our society and for the education of a wellrounded person,” says Jonathan. “There is also a study group underway looking at how our country can support science and technology research policy.”

Jonathan, who was at Choate for three years, has a lengthy history of academic work and public service.

After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees and a doctorate from Yale, he was chief of staff for Yale president Kingman Brewster in the early 1970s. He then was vice president for planning at the University of Chicago. From 1982 to 1999 he was president of the New School for Social Research in New York City, and then headed the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for a decade. In 2001, he was awarded the Choate Alumni Seal Prize. Since 2009, he has been a visiting fellow at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College.

As president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Jonathan follows in the footsteps of John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams, both of whom headed the Academy in its earliest years.

“I have overall responsibility for administering the affairs of the Academy,” he says, “working closely with the Board of Directors and other governing bodies. I also will be working with the committee of members of the Academy on their research projects.” The Academy has about 4,000 domestic members 400 foreign honorary members.

In researching and discussing public policy issues, “the Academy’s first responsibility is to try to get the thinking right,” Jonathan says, “and then to make the information and insights available in a form not only accessible to scholars and policy makers but to the general public. We follow up with articles in issues of our journal, Daedalus, that are drawn from studies. We have meetings around the country of our members to talk about the findings of studies. Our research is independent, nonpartisan, and there to serve the public good; we’re not lobbyists by any stretch of the imagination.”

Jonathan and his wife, Cynthia, live in Fairfield, Conn.; members of his family have lived in that area since the 1680s.

“I owe a great deal to Choate,” he says. “Everything I have done in my life is rooted in values of public service and helping others, respecting the facts and evidence, trying to get good information – all of which were important at School. My love of history and my sense of the importance of history were first stimulated by people like [former history teacher] Gordon Stillman at Choate.”

Two current American Academy efforts also have an educational bent. One, the Lincoln Project, looks at the future of public higher education in a time of government cutbacks and competition from other institutions. Another, Stewarding America, examines the role that institutions, including schools, play in strengthening the foundation of American democracy.

“It is important for the Academy to frame and explore questions that are not in everyday conversation,” Jonathan says, “but have an important bearing on the public good, including issues that may be critical 10 or 15 years from now.”

S T O R Y B Y H e n R Y M c n u lT Y ’ 6 5 Henry McNulty ’65 is a Bulletin contributor.

BULLETIN | FALL 2014 41

’63 RH CONTINUED...

Angela Treat Belknap Lyon has recently completed and published Carving My Life, the first of a three-volume set on her stone sculptures. It’s now available on her website, both as an Ebook and in print. Each volume has more than 70 pages of beautiful full-color images of her sculpture, along with a written history behind each piece, including, she says, “what I did when doctors said I’d never walk again, what ’dead’ stone is, and more.” Check it out at angelatreatlyonart.com.

Margo Melton Nutt went back to Maine at the end of August to do a reading from her book about her father, The Tenor of His Times, at the Seal Cove Auto Museum on Mount Desert Island. Her father had a collection of more than 100 antique cars (sold before his death in 1961 to Winthrop Rockefeller).

One of those cars, a 1913 Peugeot, is now in the Seal Cove collection.

Cindy Skiff Shealor reports that her third granddaughter, Meg, has appeared on the scene.

Betsy O’Hara Stiefvater sends an update from Germany: “My daughter PJ (Penelope Jane) married in upstate N.Y. in August, so all my children (Pieter and family from Hamburg and Ella and twins from Miami) met there for a big celebration.

In Hamburg life goes on as usual: I have a handful of English students who keep me occupied, and I continue to do a lot of bike riding and swimming.

In other words, I am enjoying life!”

Reeve Lindbergh Tripp writes, “Still writing, slowly putting together another book of essays; also involved in a couple of writing workshops for various ages, and serving on a few boards involved with the arts and education. I’m also very happy to report that my second daughter, Susannah, had a baby boy, Tate Nicholas Scanlon, in California in February.”

’64 C John Foster, former faculty (1959-1969), writes, “Thank you, members of the Class of ’64, for remembering me during Reunion Weekend in such a thoughtful and generous way. I shall treasure the elegantly engraved compass and the commemorative faculty tributes, which have been sent to me in Florida. I wish I could have joined you in celebration. It would have been a very special pleasure to reconnect with your class. Just as 1964 was a significant year for you, it was for me as well, becoming Head of the French Department and coach of Varsity Tennis – you all embarking on a college career while, in a similar way, I was facing new challenges. Fond memories of Choate in the 60s will always remain with me. With very best wishes to each of you.” John can be reached via email at lojofoster@gmail.com

Jeffrey P. Gould writes, “Just great to see all, and Choate never looked better. The CRH leadership is on solid ground to address the future. Well done!”

Rosemary Hall Class of 64 at their 50th Reunion in Wallingford. Front row, from left, Karen Browning, Ellen Halsted, Sharon Stevenson Griffith, Nancy Knowles, Tina Johnson, Barbie Symmers Bancroft. Back row, from left, Linda Holch Gordon, Sally Thompson Steele, Suzanne Shippen Zimmermann, Sam Barnes, Susie "Cary" Samuels Hochberg, Sally Schaefer, Christy Thompson Sumner, Gwyn Ruutz-Rees Martin, Sue II deLima Knowles, Maria Vitagliano, and Cindy Webb Hendrick.

’64 RH Sally Thompson Steele writes, “a group of the RH class of 1964 met in Charleston, South Carolina, in October 2013 and again in Wallingford for the 50th reunion, with others joining us there. We also convened in NYC for the 40th and 45th and sometime in between some of us went to Christie Thompson’s Nantucket house; a few did a small reunion at my house in Harvard, Mass. Next year rumor has it we might have the opportunity to visit Montana via Susan Heyn and her husband. Stay tuned.” Send news to Sally Thompson at sally@tsteele.com

Sam Barnes has worked for the United Nations doing international work in Mozambique since 1981. With a partner for 14 years, she has a daughter and a stepdaughter. She retired in 2009. She spends time in Mozambique as a consultant and has a condo in N.Y.C. She has traveled much during her interesting life.

Sarah Boynton moved to Charleston from Mass., a few years ago, managed the huge farmers Market there and is an active tour guide who made the RH Charleston reunion there just perfect!

Karen Browning lives in Vermont, is a retired social worker, runs a school-based mentoring program, has a vineyard, and enjoys hiking and biking.

Rebecca Cook, although retired, continues with some teaching, research, and writing at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto. Her most recent book, Abortion Law in Transnational Perspective (University of Pennsylvania Press) is a co-edited collection.

Terry Craigmyle has a son and a grandson and lives in Torrington, Conn.

Sue II deLima has a life full of grandchildren.

She is in N.Y.C twice a week to work at the hotel she and her husband, Jimmy Knowles, own and operate.

Over the past ten years she has dealt with lots of health issues, among them Parkinson’s, breast cancer, and back surgery. Her family is great and life is full.

Mary Jane Fry lives in Chicago and retired in 2001. She lives with her husband of 38 years and their rescue dog, Archie. They love to travel, and play golf, and MJ is an avid duplicate bridge player.

Ellen Halsted is retired from United Airlines.

She is surrounded by lots of nieces and nephews. She volunteers at the garden in Carl Schurz Park, where she cares for a special garden called Ellen’s Hill.

Carla Hansel joined several RH alums in Nantucket a few years back, but could not make it east this year. She sends her warmest regards.

Tawney Harding lives in Washington, D.C., volunteers at the National Gallery, and recently published an article on Jerry Brown in New World.

Heidi Hawkins is very busy running one of the best B&Bs in the world. She is in San Miguel de Allende, and the B&B is called Casa de la Cuesta.

Several classmates have stayed in this fantastic town and B&B, and they all recommend it!

Sue Hennington lives in South Carolina, is a retired social worker and loves to kayak, hike, do yoga, and spend time on her boat.

Jane Heroy writes she and her husband are great. Their married children are living in Va., Mass., and Md., and they are in Fla., which means more traveling. They have six grandsons. Tom and Jane had an amazing trip to Vietnam – Tom was there during the war, and they were curious to see how the country has changed. They say they are spoiled as can be in retirement, and grateful for their health and strength. If any RHers find themselves in the Singer Island area, give a call!

Susan Heyn lives in Texas, has a doctorate in Public Health, is an artist, and has written a children’s book. Her children have given them a small clan of grandchildren.

Linda Holch has been married for 48 years and had three children. She too loves to be with her grandchildren. Her mom passed away this spring.

Linda is a painter, and her work can be seen at About Art on Bald Head Island N.C.

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Wendy Holmes lives in N.Y. State with her husband of 36 years. She continues to make photographs, now mostly abstract and in color, and exhibits her work. She also curates art shows in a small independent bookstore in her town, Chatham, N.Y. She travels to Australia whenever possible to visit her daughter and son-in-law, who is a native Melbournian, and her almost two-year-old grandson.

Wendy’s son is working on his Ph.D. at Oxford, and married this summer.

Susanne Jackson and husband, Jeffrey Miller, live in Conn., and have a lot of grandchildren who keep them young. She joined RH alums in N.Y.C for maybe the 40th and 45th? She could not be at the Wallingford reunion because her youngest was graduating from nursing school that weekend.

Patty Jayson lives in Mass., near the water (of course!). She loves reunions and looks forward to more.

Tina Johnson married and had one child who is 45. She divorced and she married Winslow and moved to Princeton. They had two children and she stayed home. They moved to Falmouth and then Colorado. Winslow died in 2012. Tina moved to Newport, RI – closer to many RH friends.

Nancy Knowles lives in N.H. and is a musician, painter, and actor. She has been a singer for 40 years.

She is currently writing a play about her mother, who was inspirational, and coping with tragedy. She was excited about a residency in Nantucket this summer.

Molly Maddox lives in the southwest and is a painter. She won accolades in a publication as one of the artists to see!

Carolyn Norton seems to be very busy in her real estate business.

Margot Paul writes that her daughter was married at their small rustic inn in the Adirondacks last summer (www.elklalkelodge.com). The groom rowed his bride across the lake to be married in a quiet mountain setting. Margot and her husband usually spend the summer at the inn. Margot is on the board of National Audubon Society. She also serves on the board of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian Heye Center. She is always happy to see classmates for a tour or a romp in N.Y.C.

Jamie Rosenthal lives in LA with her husband.

They have one daughter. Jamie is a photographer, is politically active, and, rumor has it (via Wendy Holmes, who visited Jamie), she has an extensive and exquisite rose garden and home.

Gwyn Ruutz-Rees became a costumer, married and divorced, and has one child, a son. She plays music as much as she can. She too is retired.

Along with Maria Vitagliano and Ellen Halsted, she organized the St. Bede’s Chapel visit on Sunday in Greenwich following the 50th reunion in Wallingford.

Cary Samuels has two girls, ages 32 and 29. She was a nursery school teacher, mom, and yoga teacher. She has fibromyalgia, which yoga and meditation help.

Sally Schaefer lives in Annapolis, Md., works full time, loves to travel, and just finished a bike trip in Italy.

She has a great time with her nieces and nephews.

Susana Sedgwick (aka Manzana) is in N.Y.C. performing and enjoying the city life.

Suzanne Shippen loved teaching, adopted two children, got into development work, and worked at a Quaker School. She has eight grandchildren.

Sunie Stanton lives in N. Carolina and is a grandmother.

Sherry Stevenson says that Ms. McBee talked her into majoring in cartography at college, where she received a BA and then a good job in D.C. Her husband joined the Navy and they moved to Calif. It was magical, she said. She did real estate for ten years, worked as a school aide, got a degree at 55, and started teaching.

(Ms. McBee might be surprised by this!) She retired a year ago. She has been married for 43 years and has two sons and three grandchildren.

Patricia Sweney duPont writes: “Patricia Sweney duPont and husband, George, welcome our gleeful new granddaughter, Beatrice Borden Bell!

She’s named after Patricia’s mom, RH ’38, who is 93 years old and living in Santa Barbara, Calif. Alexa duPont Bell ’96 and Jefferson Eliot Bell, along with Beatrice’s big brother, Henry Eliot Bell (age 3), are delighted to share her with their little gang of barefoot cousins, Sophie (age 6) and Geordie (age 3) duPont, kids of Geordie ’93 and Julie duPont. Little Beatrice is 3 months old and learning to talk by mimicking each of us as we speak slowly to her … then she laughs hysterically at the humor of it all. Life is good and we feel blessed!”

Christie Thompson lives in Vermont, is a retired speech pathologist who loves to travel, sail, ski, and play with grandchildren. She is building a (more) modern house on her property with all of the new amenities, including wheelchair accessibility! She hopes the Class of ’64 will reune at our 75th and we will all try to remember RH songs!

Sally Thompson lives in Mass., has recently retired from her own publishing business of 25 successful years, and now is happily involved in eldercare as a retirement project. She just started a pilot program focused on socialization for seniors who have early dementia and/or are homebound and isolated. She also babysits her oldest son’s toddler twins (boy and girl) in Freeport two days a week. Her younger son (F to M transgender) married a wonderful woman this past summer. They live happily in their Oakland home, have great jobs, and love their shelter dog. She is sorry to relay that Jane Adams has early dementia. She is being cared for by her loving husband in Calif.

Sandy Trumble and her husband live 4.5 hours from Detroit. Sandy summered there and that’s where she met her husband of 47 years. She loves it, and they have eight grandchildren. Their oldest grandchild is in Alaska graduating from high school. She lives in a town of 1,500 and is 4-5 hours from an airport, but she would consider attending a future reunion.

Maria Vitagliano lives in New York City and Greenwich; she is a lawyer, and tennis player, and she rescues dogs from Puerto Rico. Maria hosted the lunch after the St. Bede’s Chapel service in Greenwich on Sunday, following our 50th reunion in Wallingford.

Cindy Webb lives in N.H. with her husband and is a retired occupational therapist. She creates beautiful greeting cards. She also has a new first grandchild!

While in Wallingford, the Class of 1964 had a brief memorial service for those classmates who are now deceased, including, Marilyn Cobb, Sue Singleton, and Ginger Simson.

’65 C

Stephen Buck writes, “At the moment, we are clearing out our house, giving away stuff, moving other stuff to the attic, signing up for Social Security and Medicare, painting the deck and other parts of the house. My wife, Dawn Kramer, is retiring from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where she has been teaching part time for 38 years. We have rented our house to a friend for nine months starting September 1 and are hitting the road. We are making three stops: San Francisco, where Dawn’s daughter and two grandchildren live; someplace in Mexico (at the moment Guanajuato is our focus); and then Paris in the spring, taking over a friend’s apartment in the 11th arrondissement before returning at the end of May. We may pass through Boston on the way from Mexico for a couple of days. We will probably write a travelogue to go along with the nine we have already written. We are hoping never to shovel snow again, but enjoy our garden and friends when we return for the summer months. After the first year, we will evaluate and do it again if it seems right. I have been doing lights in the theater for the past 30 years or so and am going from self-unemployed to semi-retired, and it remains to be seen whether I will work more or less.”

John C. Fennebresque has been elected chairman of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors, the policymaking body of the 17-campus statewide university system. A member of the board since 2011, John began his new term on July 1. The Board of Governors plans, develops, and governs all affairs of the state’s public university system, including determining the functions, educational activities, and academic programs of each campus. As its chairman, Fennebresque will play an important leadership role in system-level policymaking and governance. John is a Charlotte-based lawyer at McGuireWoods LLP and is an alumnus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Vanderbilt University Law School.

BULLETIN | FALL 2014 43

Robert B. Santulli, M.D., writes, “I’ve just retired from my geriatric psychiatry practice here at Dartmouth, but I’m continuing to do some teaching and other things at the college. I’ve greatly enjoyed my life as a doctor, particularly the last two decades specializing in Alzheimer’s disease, but it seemed to me it was time to stop when I realized I was looking as old as some of my patients. My wife says that now that I’m retired I have to do my own laundry. Some people talk about their various accomplishments in Class Notes. My greatest accomplishment is my wonderful family. I enjoyed our 40th reunion very much and hope to make it next spring to the 50th.

Need to lose a few pounds first.”

’65 RH Lesley Hencken Starbuck and Wesley Cullen Davidson celebrated Kathleen Ketcham Wikowitz's birthday in New York City in early July.

1970s ’70 C Franklin B. Sullivan writes, “I am now living in Zürich, Switzerland, working for ABB in Global Product Management and Marketing. We are 9 months into a 3-year assignment and greatly enjoying the Swiss quality of life and all the country has to offer. Would love to connect with other Choate alums in the area: franklinbsullivan@gmail.com.”

Tom Turnbull retired this summer from his 12th grade teaching position that he held for many years in Clayton Valley, Calif., and most recently at Clayton Valley Charter High School. His school dedicated the Class of 2014 yearbook to Tom and had a special dedication for him during the graduation ceremony.

LEFT Bob Santulli ’65 and his

son, Steve; wife, Linda; and daughter, Liza.

RIGHT Jim Smith ’65 and wife, Rita, just celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary. The couple reside in Golden, Colorado, where his real estate career is now in its 12th year and is growing.

’68 C

Mark Staebler writes, “I’ve settled happily in Albuquerque and look forward to greeting fellow Choate alumni in the area. Still happily playing the virtuoso cello and working on my memoirs. As Ogden Nash quipped, ’And golly, what memoirs / Them was!’”

What is Your Legacy?

Choate Rosemary Hall has been a demonstrated leader in education for the past 125 years. Today, our proud position at the forefront of secondary education is secure in large part because of thoughtful individuals who created their own legacies – with planned gifts.

AS WE LOOK TOWARD THE FUTURE, CONSIDER YOUR OWN LEGACY … AT CHOATE ROSEMARY HALL. TO LEARN HOW TO CREATE AND MAXIMIZE YOUR GIFT, CONTACT THE PLANNED GIVING OFFICE TODAY. WE MAKE IT SIMPLE TO GIVE!

legacies last forever Rick Henderson Director of Planned Giving rhenderson@choate.edu (203) 697-2117

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How Do You Want to be Remembered? legacies last forever Rick Henderson Director of Planned Giving rhenderson@choate.edu (203) 697-2117

’71 C

Passing your retirement plans on to your family can be costly. There might be a better way.

You may find it most advantageous to put your retirement resources to better use and avoid tax penalties by making a charitable gift to Choate Rosemary Hall.

AS THE SCHOOL CELEBRATES 125 YEARS AND LOOKS TOWARD THE FUTURE, CONSIDER ESTABLISHING YOUR OWN LEGACY … AT CHOATE ROSEMARY HALL. TO LEARN HOW TO CREATE A LASTING MEMORY WITH YOUR GIFT, CONTACT THE PLANNED GIVING OFFICE TODAY. WE MAKE IT SIMPLE TO GIVE!

Bruce Mosbacher attended Stanford and Stanford Law School and lives with his wife, Nancy, in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a managing director at Harvest Capital Management and has served on the boards of directors of a number of publicly traded and privately held companies. Son Jack has been working as a research assistant at Stanford since graduation in 2012, and his articles on the implications of Africa’s oil boom were published in Foreign Affairs and Washington Quarterly. Jack recently returned to musical theater with major roles in Du Barry Was A Lady, CATS, and Cabaret and has landed an Actor’s Equity role in Sweeney Todd. Daughter Emily is a junior at Harvard and plays soccer for the Crimson.

Peter Richmond writes from Millerton, N.Y., where he lives with his wife of 31 years, Melissa Davis.

“My seventh book, a young adult novel titled Always a Catch, will be published by Philomel, a Penguin

imprint, in September. (It’s about a kid adjusting to life at, yes, a prep school.) My latest nonfiction book, Phil Jackson: Lord of the Rings, published by Penguin’s Blue Rider Press in January, will be out in paperback also in September (See review on p. 63). I have just finished my first year at Moravian College (Bethlehem, Pa.) as the recipient of the college’s first fellowship in their Master of Arts in Teaching degree program, as well as teaching as an adjunct professor. (My first fellowship was a Nieman Fellowship in Journalism at Harvard ’89.) This spring I taught the YA novel, which included a Skype interview with Katherine Marsh ’92 discussing her award-winning YA novel The Night Tourist. My first musical, co-written with composer Ken Lauber, is about the NFL (but it’s dark) and is being developed by Bard College at Simon’s Rock in Great Barrington, Mass.”

Bill Gaylord ’72 off the grid on his year-long, self-imposed sabbatical in Colombia.

’72 C Bill Gaylord just completed a year-long, self-imposed art sabbatical in June with the purpose of figuring out “what to do when he grows up.” Celebrating 60 trips around the sun, Bill and his wife of 36 years, Lindy, headed to South America to learn Spanish, take printmaking and art classes, and trek the Andes while spending nearly five months in Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Mexico. Check out their blog: www.carolinaybill.wordpress.com. Returning to post-sabbatical reality, Bill has started a new firm, Gaylord Art & Design, having retired from GGLO in 2013, an architecture firm he co-founded 28 years ago. Bill regrets missing his 40th reunion in 2012 and encourages classmates to visit him in Seattle and join him for a hike in the North Cascades. ’73 C Jim Bertles writes, “Would love to reconnect with old Choate friends, either in Palm Beach, Fla., from September through May, or Rowayton, Conn., during the summer. Had two children go to Deerfield but still have a soft spot in my heart for Choate, Rosemary Hall, Choate football, etc. Don’t keep up with many Choaties other than Drew Casertano ’74 and Jay Remsen ’75.” ’74 C

Russell Davis writes, “I am transitioning from law practice to training start-up entrepreneurs and managing a venture capital campaign for San Diegobased companies. Presently working with Evan Malter ’92 on his latest venture into loyalty-based capital funding for local companies. Love the new EverTrue application. A Marauders map for CRH alumni!”

Mike Kazickas writes, “Sorry to miss the 40th reunion in May but my son Jack graduated from SMU in Dallas the same weekend. It was a great time.

Hope to see everyone from the Class of ’74 at our 45th reunion if not sooner!”

BULLETIN | FALL 2014 45

Tony Lopez is a Navy LT assigned to NCIS in Spain. Tony left teaching after 9/11 and went into the Navy Reserve as a Law Enforcement Officer. He also became a civilian Law Enforcement Officer. He was recently honored by Spanish Police in Rota for his work protecting children.

’75 C Bob Kaiser writes, “This year I traveled almost as much as I did when I was working, before I went on disability more than 12 years ago. Briefly, I experienced a spinal cord injury in my neck during a medical procedure that went terribly wrong. I am still on

disability but am much better and find improvements still after this great length of time. My partner, Tim Deal, and I went to Spain and Portugal for a couple weeks last fall and had a wonderful time with dear friends, and made some new ones. We even stayed in Madrid with a close friend I met on the Choate exchange program with the American School of Madrid during my senior year. This past year I visited with Brooks Peters in St. Petersburg, Fla., and then, in the winter, with Doug McGrath ’76, Annis Karpenko, Ruth D’Agostino, and Ed Maddox, among others, [at an event sponsored by the Choate Rosemary Hall

1

Alumni Association], during which we dined on some fine food and listened to Doug humorously tell of his exploits getting from Choate to Broadway and talk about his Emmy-winning story about Carole King now on Broadway, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical.

Subsequently, I have had the pleasure of visiting with Eric Ploumis and his wife, who own a popular and flourishing art gallery in Brooklyn, near where we live. Not to leave family out, my brother Hans ’76 had a great family cookout, a rare event for all four of us and our mother to get together in Annapolis. I was there on one of the many house- and pet-sitting stays I do several times a year for my stepsisters, who live in the area. While I am taking care of those duties, I manage to squeeze in time with my karate students in Washington, D.C., at the school I founded in 1993 – and then sold (due to the injury) to a couple of them in 2007. I am a 7th degree master instructor of a style of Okinawan karate called Uechi-ryu. I have been studying and teaching karate since my freshman year of college (Boston University ’80). It keeps me happy and healthy and undoubtedly helped me make it through the rougher times (Well, the karate training and my life partner helped me through them). Now, while still on the mend, I teach two or three times a month in New York City and get some travel in to visit friends and family.”

Marc Vollmer writes, “I am currently farming Crassostrea virginica oysters on Long Island’s East End.”

’75 RH Annis Campione-Karpenko graduated from

2

Goddard College with an M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Art. Along with her art work (anniskarpenko.com) she is happy to be “Grandy” to granddaughter Haley.

Merrick Murdock lives in Washington, D.C., and is a marketing consultant for social media and TV.

Maggie Moffitt Rahe teaches 2nd grade at St. Thomas Day School in New Haven.

’76 C

3 1 Bruce Cooper ’75 and his

son, Daniel, attended the World Cup in Brazil this summer in support of the U.S. team against Portugal and Germany. Bruce is a criminal defense lawyer practicing in Washington, D.C.,

4 Maryland, and Virginia. Daniel is a rising senior at Tulane where he plays on the soccer team.

2 Maggie Moffitt Rahe ’75, left, and Merrick Murdock ’75 of Washington, D.C., right, got together in Southport, Conn.,

in July and had a mini-reunion with Peter Hoffman ’74.

3 Bruce Mosbacher ’71 and wife, Nancy, live in in the San Francisco Bay Area. Son, Jack, recently returned to musical theater. Daughter, Emily, is a

junior at Harvard and plays soccer for the Crimson.

4 Bob Kaiser ’75, left, and his partner, Tim Deal, in Toledo, Spain.

Rod Fletcher writes that he is coaching his hometown Wayland Boys Varsity Volleyball team. “I took over in 2011 without any returning players so it was starting the program from scratch. I was lucky to get a group of athletic sophomores to come and play.

None of them had ever played before so tryouts were really clinics on skills and how to play. Two weeks into our season, we played the Massachusetts defending state champion, Sudbury, and got shelled, but the boys battled and played hard for the rest of the season. The second year, with all the returning players with one year of experience, we improved dramatically and missed the post season by just one win. Last year we qualified for the state championship tournament in the regular season and lost to the defending state champion, Cambridge, in the first round in a hardfought match. Last year’s team graduated so I am back to building the team again with another group of good athletes from basketball, football, and soccer.

I arranged a match with the Choate team this year,

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3

2

4 5

7 1 6 1 John Baay II ’80 with daughter,

2 Rebecca Kotch ’84 has moved to

3 Charlene Caprio ’92, Harmony Caton

5 Martin J. Morrison III, M.D. ’91 and

6 Patrick Holley ’90 brought his

Madeline, during her wedding to Chris Dubas. The wedding was held on June 14 in New Orleans at the Academy of Sacred Heart with the reception at the Orleans Club. John Baay ’49 and Rob Shaw ’80 were also present.

Napa Valley to work for Chef Michael Chiarello’s Bottega Gran Fondo, an operation that celebrates the passion for food and cycling.

’92, and Jo Honig ’92 enjoyed catching up surrounded by the blue seas and mountains of Ikaria, Greece.

4 Rod Fletcher ’76 coaching his hometown Wayland Boys Varsity Volleyball team.

wife, Bronwyn D. Carlson, M.D., welcomed Martin J. Morrison IV on April 3, 2014.

"Penn" joins big sister Lakelyn (3 ½ years old).

children (Pierce, left, and Palmer, right) to campus for a visit on Mother’s Day weekend.

7 Beth Goetz ’93 is living in Atlanta with her three daughters, Avery, Ella and Hollyn.

where I first learned to play and love the game from Tom Yankus ’52, the coach who taught me! I have coached lots of youth soccer and basketball for my four children over the years but this is very different, lots of fun, and full of challenges. I encourage anyone who has a chance to coach the older kids to give it a try. Plus, it is fun to be part of the high school where my kids go to school. I did coach the Dartmouth Men’s Club VB team while I was at Tuck, and then I was the Assistant Coach at MIT for a few years too, which helped prepare me.”

1980s ’80

Doug Karlson writes, “Since last August, I have worked at The Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank, where I am Vice President, Director of Marketing Communications.”

Mike Lewyn writes, “I am (temporarily) moving to Kansas City to be a visiting professor at the University of Missouri at Kansas City’s law school during the 2014-15 academic year. I hope to return to N.Y.C. in the summer of 2015.” Michael blogs at www.smartgrowthforconservatives.com on issues related to land use and transportation.

’81 Julia Lee Barclay-Morton has been researching and writing The Amazing True Imaginary Autobiography of Dick and Jani for the past three years. This book traces the lives of her grandmothers, both born in 1916 (before women had the right to vote), but who cut two very different paths through their lives. She says, “Dick was, on the surface, a one-

dimensional, frustrated housewife (who was anything but), whereas Jani rebelled loudly against the conventions of marriage and motherhood yet never stopped trying to find love, even after she crashed out of her third marriage on her way to becoming a feminist teacher in the 1970s.” Check it out on Facebook (www.facebook.com/autobioofdickandjani) and Twitter (twitter.com/wilhelminapitfa)

’82

Ed Harney writes, “Members of the Class of 1982 held a joint 50th birthday celebration in NYC. We dearly missed all of you who were unable to attend; of course, this means we engaged in liberal storytelling at your expense … So, for our 35th reunion in 2017, come back and defend yourselves!” Congratulations to Dave “Hollywood” McWhirter, who is directing/ producing a prime-time TV series. Dave and Barry Sheridan attended Thursday night cocktails in New York City in May. Shout out to Barry’s daughter, Nina ’14, who will attend Princeton in the fall of 2015 after a gap year. And Ariana Gelwicks, Christine Gelwicks’ daughter, was also on the Choate Rosemary Hall 2014 list of graduates; she is heading to George Washington University in Washington, D.C., in the fall.

’83 J.T. Beatty lives in rural Wisconsin where he runs a small business that specializes in Black Locust products, some of which his East Coast classmates may have already experienced, especially if they have been to the New York Botanical Garden’s new Native Plant Garden boardwalk. J.T. invites anyone who happens through the Driftless Region of southwestern Wisconsin to stop by for a visit.

’84 Rebecca Kotch writes, “After 12 years of Los Angeles city life, I have been happily living in the countryside of Napa, Calif., working in the food, wine, and cycling worlds. Serious cyclists (or not), feel free to contact me about riding in the wine country, or sign up for my event at www.bottegagranfondo.com.

I remain in touch with Katie Benenson Marcus, Duke Stump, and Kevin Kassover ’87, and I think about my dear Choate friend Christine Heath, who is no longer here with us.” ’92

Jessica Rabe Savage and Will Savage recently celebrated their tenth wedding anniversary and the second anniversary of their move from Baltimore to Boston. Jessica says that Will hasn’t matured a bit since high school. Their two daughters, Emily (9) and Sally (7), agree. Nevertheless, Jessica and Will manage to keep the peace during their daily commute together to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where Jess is an allergist researching food allergies and Will works in transfusion medicine studying allergies to blood transfusion.

BULLETIN | FALL 2014 47

CLASSNOTES | Profile

Kevin Mardesich & Tony

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BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE

Nonprofit Global Spine Outreach Co-Founder Dr. Tony Rinella ’87 teams-up with his Choate roommate, Prof. Kevin Mardesich ’87, to document the effort to save Colombian children suffering from severe spinal deformities.

IT ’S HARD TO BELIEVE that two Choate kids who dodged their terrifying Science and German tests one morning in 1986 by hiding out in the Infirmary would 28 years later help lead an international medical outreach to change and document lives.

But life has funny twists. This irony is not lost on UCLA Extension Film Instructor Kevin Mardesich ’87, who laughs, recalling his “acting” that morning in the Infirmary with his roommate, Tony Rinella ’87.

In May, the two began a new medical initiative.

Tony would perform nonprofit surgeries on Colombian children with severe spinal deformities, as he has for 10 years. Kevin would document the work in short interviews like the ones he’s filmed with Oscar and industry-leading guest speakers for the past 10 years.

Kevin would work with archived medical footage of Estefania, whose spine was bent 90 degrees, her body too weak to walk. After years of surgeries Estefania, now 7, would be photographed by

cameraman Daniel Marracino, who also shoots documentaries for Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock. Tony and Kevin’s new documentary, Before It’s Too Late, is a portrait of these brave children battling spinal defects, and shows how their lives are changed after surgeries. Another recent success story is former patient Paola, who now works as a nurse at the same hospital, Valle del Lili in Cali, where she was treated.

later USC grad school. But I never worked harder than Choate. So, yes! The school did cure me; it taught me discipline. Despite my performance, or perhaps because of it, remember how many all-nighters we had to pull to earn teacher praise?

Remember your computer-designed biology report that glowed with compliments? There’s a reason you’re flying to Colombia for your 20th volunteer trip while running your practice. Credit goes to you, Choate, and my swollen glands.

TONY: How did your award-winning NYU docu-

mentary following a gang member from the streets of Brooklyn to medical school encourage you to become a storyteller?

KEVIN: NYU sharpened my documentary skills, but studying human endeavor is in my blood. I spilt some blood in New York, as did my late dad in his emergency room. He was an eye surgeon in L.A., for 37 years, and while Inglewood buildings burned to the ground during the ’92 riots he continued to drive to work. My late brother Pat was also an ophthalmologist in a poor area. He drove his patients to the surgeries because they had no ride.

One either cares about the “human story” or one does not. Speaking of which, congratulations on your Blount Humanitarian Award! What might be some reasons you became a doctor?

TONY: You become a doctor because you want to help people; the substance of life matters more than the numbers. I started off as an economics major at Northwestern, but switched to philosophy.

My dad was a radiologist, but I wanted to interact more with patients. That is one of the reasons why I volunteer in Colombia. I speak Spanish, and I can talk to my patients directly. It’s my goal to build another nonprofit center wherever needed. Global Spine Outreach in Cali is now one of the top spinereferral centers in Central America, the Caribbean, and Northern South America. We’ll build a new center one trip at a time. I do not want to see these kids dying from a fixable problem.

KEVIN: You shared something profound about

each of us being “dealt a hand” in life.

Below is part of a conversation with them: TONY: I credit the Infirmary for curing me of Science Class-itis by the time I graduated. Do you remember any similar stories of healing there, or its influence on your acting development?

KEVIN: I remember the nurse massaging my neck and diagnosing me with “swollen glands” as I swallowed. I recall you being amused to no end, holding your thermometer to the lamp’s light bulb to brighten my performance a couple degrees. I matriculated to NYU for Acting (and Film) and

TONY: Many of the children we see have syn-

dromes causing them to be disfigured, but are proud wise souls. You wonder why any of us ever complain about the hand we were dealt.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT TONY AND KEVIN’S DOCUMENTARY BEFORE IT ’S TOO LATE, PLEASE VISIT:

http://globalspineoutreach.org/documentary.htm

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’94

Bethany Livstone Stevenson lives with her family in Washington, D.C., where she works for Discovery Communications on TV programs such as Puppy Bowl, Alaska: The Last Frontier, and various specials for Shark Week.

Miriam Neptune was recently promoted to Manager of Instructional Media Services at the Barnard College Library, supporting digital humanities and other creative curriculum projects at the college and acting as personal librarian to the Film Studies program. She writes, “Although I was sad to miss my 20th reunion, I enjoyed reconnecting with friends Kalimah Fergus ’93 and Faithann Brown ’93 in July.”

Colm Rafferty had the opportunity to represent the U.S. business community in China last summer as one of six CEOs to be included in the Annual U.S. China Strategic Economic Dialogue (S&ED) in Beijing, led by Secretary of State John Kerry. Colm gave the kickoff remarks last July, right after the Vice Premier, which was quite a thrill. Colm is CEO at Vermeer China Limited, and Vice President, Asia Pacific Region, at Vermeer Corporation.

RIGHT Miriam Neptune ’94 and husband, Maxime Valbrune, welcomed their second son, Max-André Kajou Valbrune, on July 26, 2013. He joins big brother Yanic Emmanuel, age 5.

ABOVE Ashlee Diehl Smith ’94 and

her husband, Dave, and son Owen welcomed Alexander Eric Smith in April 2014. Everyone is happy and healthy in Virginia Beach, Va. RIGHT LeMoyne Harwell ’94 and wife,

Azimahana Amir, are living in Seattle with their son Shafih Dorsey, born on February 26, 2014.

Bethany Livstone Stevenson ’94 and husband, Rob, welcomed a daughter, Abigail Catherine Stevenson, in September 2013. “Abby Cat” was born in Washington, D.C.

’94

BULLETIN | FALL 2014 49

CLASSNOTES | Profile

Jordan Lloyd Bookey

Combining the Human Touch and Technology In 2011, with her second child on the way, Jordan Lloyd Bookey ’96 set out to find a book for her almost two-year old son, Cassius, about being a big brother – one in which “the family looked like our own.” Jordan is white; her husband, Felix Brandon Lloyd, is African-American. Like many parents of young children, Jordan did her best to search through the mass of available children’s books, but it wasn’t until after her daughter, Florence, was born that she finally stumbled across All the World, a story about a mixed-race family.

It was this frustrating experience that gave Jordan, then Head of K-12 Education Outreach for Google, an idea.

Three years later, Jordan is now “Chief Mom” of Zoobean, an Arlington, Va.-based web service she co-founded with Felix (“Chief Dad,” naturally) that curates books and apps for individual kids.

The site (zoobean.com) allows parents to build profiles of their children, including reading level, subject tastes, and themes of interest such as “multiracial,” “twins,” or “adopted children.”

Jordan’s team of 15 curators, which includes librarians, parents, and educators, then generates personalized recommendations, along with custom learning guides. There is even a book-of-the-month home delivery option. They have also started licensing their technology to libraries. “We use a combination of human touch and technology to find the best resources for your kids,” Jordan explains.

Since Zoobean’s official launch in May 2013 with seed money from socially conscious venture capital firm Kapor Capital, the site has been featured in Real Simple, The Washington Post, and Publishers Weekly. This past April, Jordan and Felix appeared on ABC’s entrepreneur reality show, “Shark Tank,” where they raised an additional $250,000 from investor Mark Cuban. As Zoobean has grown, Jordan and Felix, who live in Washington, D.C., have been able to devote themselves full time to the company, which Jordan describes as “definitely a family affair,” noting that one of their daughter’s first words was “Zoobean.”

These days, the company includes friends, as well as family: Zoobean’s lead curator is Josia Lamberto-Egan ’95.

Jordan’s road to social entrepreneurship started in Des Moines, Iowa, where she was raised in a family of civic-minded entrepreneurs, and continued at Choate, where she volunteered at the Connecticut Children’s Museum in New Haven and for Habitat for Humanity. After graduating from Wesleyan, she ended up teaching seventh and eighth grade at The SEED School, a public charter boarding school in Washington, D.C., where she met Felix. “He was moving up to become Dean of Students, and I took over his class,” Jordan says.

’96

“One of our core ideas is inclusion,” Jordan says. “We want to make sure that all families and children can see themselves reflected in the books they read.”

In 2003, she became program director for Heads Up, a tutoring and mentoring program for disadvantaged youth in D.C., and the following year, the co-founder of SEED convinced her to consider business school. “I’d always thought business school was for evil doers but when I talked to the people at Wharton, I realized there was a place there for social entrepreneurship.”

In 2007, Jordan received her MBA from Wharton. Google had already recruited her the previous summer, much to her own surprise – “I didn’t even have a Gmail account,” she says.

After graduation, she returned to Google, first as Diversity and Inclusion Programs Manager, then doing education outreach: promoting computer science, coding, and access to technology in schools. She and Felix married in 2007 and from the beginning, they were “constantly coming up with ideas for businesses of our own,” Jordan says.

Jordan admits that balancing two small children – Cassius is now four and Florence, two – with the demands of a new company can be exhausting. “I work more now than any job since teaching,” she says. But running a family business has also been a “major experience together,” one that allows her and Felix to promote the social and educational values dear to their own hearts. “One of our core ideas is inclusion,” Jordan says. “We want to make sure that all families and children can see themselves reflected in the books they read.”

story by katherine marsh ’92 Katherine Marsh is an author of books for children and young adults, most recently Jepp, Who Defied the Stars (Disney-Hyperion).

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’95 Trevor Goodyear and his wife, Alia, welcomed Miranda Goodyear into the world this past May. Trevor says, “Everyone is doing great!” ’97 Amy Nelson writes, “My husband, Pat, and I welcomed our daughter, Catherine ’Kate’ Nelson Lovett, on May 21, 2014. Kate was born at Northwestern Memorial Prentice Hospital in Chicago.“

2000s ’00

Courtney Biggs writes, “I received my M.B.A. from the University of Washington on June 14, 2014, and have accepted a position with Microsoft, so I’ll be staying in the Seattle area. Looking forward to starting my next chapter.”

Trevor Childs writes, “After HBS I started searching for a company to buy, and at the end of last year I closed a deal with Co-Energy America. We design-build and operate cogeneration and stand-by power systems across the Northeast. Running the company has been challenging, but it’s exciting to see it grow. My wife, Jaclyn, left TV news to join the Boston Herald as a columnist and radio host. And, my son, Hudson, has been working on animal sounds; the wild boar is a cross between an oink and growl.”

Andrea Miller was recently named a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation for demonstrating exceptional artistic ability.

’01

TOP Calvin Daily, son of Sarah

Handyside ’98 and Sean Daily ’98, born on May 6, 2014.

MIDDLE Stacey Cohen Kaufman ’00 and her husband, Tom, welcomed a son, Evan Shael Kaufman, on November 13, 2013 in Chicago.

BOTTOM Candice Lewis Dormon ’01 and husband James welcomed a son, Lincoln Kofi, on March 27, 2014.

Camille Asher married fellow native Boisean and classmate at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Jake Berriochoa, on May 25, 2013. They have since moved to Cleveland, where Camille is proceeding through a 5-year residency program in radiation oncology at the Cleveland Clinic. She has greatly enjoyed Cleveland’s medical community as well as its myriad arts, sports, and delicious restaurants. She and Jake look forward to enjoying several more years on Lake Erie.

Faith Wallace-Gadsden writes, “The nonprofit I founded, the Archimedes Project, is doing incredibly well. In June, we launched our first social

We launched our first social enterprise, Community Chlorinators. It trains female entrepreneurs to distribute chlorine for in-home water purification in Haiti. –FAITH WALLACE-GADSDEN

’01

enterprise, Community Chlorinators (Kouzin Dlo in Haitian Creole). It trains female entrepreneurs to distribute chlorine for in-home water purification in urban areas. We spent two weeks training local staff members and getting intensive feedback from community members and our local partners. I joined the team for this initial period and it was amazing! We had a local company run a day-long Design Thinking workshop that helped us work through some of the aspects of the plan that might otherwise have slowed down our rollout. I am now back in New York and working toward identifying the Archimedes Project’s next enterprise, which will also focus on building a scalable and sustainable clean water or sanitation business in the developing world. The director of Kouzin Dlo is a Deerfield alum, and one of the people on my leadership team is an Exeter grad. I’m feeling outnumbered! It would be amazing to get Choate grads involved!”

’02

Anthea Jay Kamalnath is joining the California Attorney General’s Executive Office as a Special Deputy Attorney General.

’03 Barrie Kreinik spent the summer in Connecticut playing Tzeitel in the 50th anniversary production of Fiddler on the Roof at Goodspeed Musicals. Barrie is currently represented by boutique talent agency 9MUSE, headed by classmate Michael Imbimbo.

Anna Lindel is “still living in Washington, D.C., and loving it here (going on seven years!). July marks my one-year anniversary at Sidwell Friends School in the Office of Alumni Relations after stints in government relations and political fundraising. I truly enjoy being a part of a school community again at such an incredible institution, and I am helping out as an assistant coach with the girls crew team. I see Honey Godwin Harris and Emily Neagle ’01 often, as well as many other Choaties in the D.C. region through my work as the co-chair of the D.C. Alumni Club.”

Jeremy White was commissioned in June as an officer in the United States Naval Reserve. ’04 Alessandra Echeverria writes, “June was a month of changes.” She received a promotion at Teach For America and started her new role as Manager, Learning and Development, National District School Partnerships. She also moved to Atlanta after spending the past six years in New York. Alessandra is settling into her new home and loves living in Atlanta already.

Claire Cook, Product Manager at Scooter Braun Projects, visited Choate on May 27 and spoke to a group of 20 students about the L.A. music world.

She talked about how the academic challenges of Choate fortified her for the challenges of life in the “real world.”

BULLETIN | FALL 2014 51

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1 Hong Kong-based alums

2 Lucas Giannella ’95 and

4 Former Headmaster Ed

5 Steve Engstrom ’03 and wife

gathered at a July 3, 2014, dinner at the Gong Guan restaurant. Bottom, from left, Elissa Gaw ’00, Roland Yau ’00, Felicia Lai (guest). Top, from left, Simone Chao ’00, Kristal Hui ’01, and Christopher Yu ’01.

wife, Gabriela, welcomed a third daughter, Teresa, born on April 24, 2014. She joins older sisters Manuela and Claudia.

3 Hudson Childs, son of Trevor Childs ’00, at 18 months, enjoying his first ice cream sandwich.

Shanahan is the grandparent for the fourth time around to William Soren Schwartz, son of Nell Shanahan ’95 and Adam Schwartz.

Stacey welcomed a son, Luke Alexander Engstrom, born on May 4, 2014. The family resides in Nashville.

6 On July 12, 2014, Choaties gathered for Neve Whitehouse’s christening at First Encounter Beach in Eastham,

Mass. Neve is the daughter of Jeffrey Mascia '01 and Meredith Whitehouse ’01. From left, Geoffrey Whitehouse ’04, Christian Whitehouse ’07, Jeffrey and Meredith, Kyle Criscuolo ’11, Gabrielle Whitehouse ’10, and Brian Mascia ’04.

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CLASSNOTES | Profile

Max Sinsteden

THE WELLDESIGNED LIFE

’05

It is a sweltering July afternoon in New York’s

bustling Garment District, but interior designer Max Sinsteden ’05 knows just the place to

escape the heat and chaos. We retreat to the NoMad Hotel, just blocks from the headquarters of Olasky & Sinsteden, the interior design firm Max co-founded in 2009.

Dim and cool, the interior library room is busy with in-the-know travelers. The atmosphere is sophisticated without being staid, much like Max himself who, though just 27, has the kind of career professionals much his senior would envy.

In less than five years Max and his partner, fellow designer Catherine Olasky, have developed a global reputation. Their completed projects include homes in Dublin, London, and India; their work was featured in Sotheby’s inaugural Designer Showhouse in 2014. It seems a meteorological rise, yet Max credits his mentors for his success. “The only way to learn is to work for other people,” he says.

Max began his education at the famed David Easton Interiors and continued on to work with celebrated designer Charlotte Moss. It was while working for Moss in 2009 that Max’s Drew University dorm room was featured in New York magazine’s Home Design issue. The room’s layered oriental rugs and artfully curated mix of thrift-store finds, client gifts, and family pieces offered an early glimpse of Max’s precocious style and distinguished him as a talent to watch.

Max is hardly less baby-faced now then he was when photographed as a college senior, but his work has matured. “I’ve been in this business now for 12 years, which is hard for me to believe,” he says.

Max came to Choate as a fourth former. Raised in Hartford, Conn., Max was, in his own words, “a very eccentric, artistic kid.”

He channeled those energies first at a family friend’s architecture firm and then in the kitchen. “The summer I was 14 my best friend and I started a catering company and catered 16 parties in a month and a half,” he says. Neither field was the right fit, but when he began at David Easton something clicked immediately.

Though he was younger than his fellow interns by almost a decade, Max was invited to return the next summer. He would continue on for the next four years before leaving to work for Charlotte Moss.

While still at Choate his personal space became a place of play and experimentation. “I lived in a tiny attic room in Woodhouse and I wallpapered all the walls with nautical charts,” he remembers. Before he had clients of his own, he began consulting for friends and family, something he continues to do even now.

While he finds inspiration everywhere, travel is a primary creative source. “I think that’s even where I got this bug, that I traveled so much as a kid with my family,” Max says.

It is an interest he shares with partner, Catherine Olasky, whom he first met in London in 2009. Max was interning for the Victoria and Albert Museum, the world’s largest museum of decorative arts and design, and Catherine was working for Colefax & Fowler, the storied English design house. They made an immediate connection and made their partnership official that fall.

Since beginning Olasky & Sinsteden, personal travel has become something of a forbidden luxury, though summer allows Max to steal time away. When we met, he had just returned from Capri, and was looking forward to a trip to Kenya. More typically, Max and Catherine are jetting off to oversee a project, like the decoration of a 16th century Guernsey farmhouse they installed in 2013.

Max sees the artisans he relies upon as collaborators. “That’s my favorite part of the business, hands down,” he says. “You wouldn’t even know that there are people who do the things that they do. It’s so important to me that these businesses stay alive.”

New York hardware company P.E. Guerin is a particular favorite.

“Each piece is literally like jewelry. Every single thing they make the hand of the artist – or five artists – is there.”

It is Max’s unbridled energy together with his respect for tradition that creates his homes’ signature vibrancy and dynamism.

And his work is always growing, always changing. Max recently moved to a new apartment. “I now think I know what I want it to look like in four months,” he says. “I have a vision.” s t o r y b y L i n d s ay W h a L e n ’ 0 1 Lindsay Whalen is a Truman Capote Fellow in the Brooklyn College MFA Program.

BULLETIN | FALL 2014 53

’05

Ian Grajewski writes, “On May 24, 2014, I married Leslie Foote at the Riverbend Club in Kohler, Wis. We had a wonderful time celebrating with our family and friends, including 14 Choaties! Robert Grajewski ’02 served as best man; Erin Grajewski ’08 served as a bridesmaid; and Kevin Hawkins, Thomas Gilloran, Gregory Shuman, and Thomas McQueen served as groomsmen. Other guests included the bride’s uncle David Nichols ’56 and cousin Charles Nichols ’07, Amanda Carpenter, Lee Cochran, Johna Hoey ’04, Michael Kelly, Andrew Walsh, and Liz Walton ’06. I am still working for the global turnaround and restructuring consultancy, AlixPartners LLP, and this fall will be moving to Austin, Texas. If any friends are in the area, please reach out!”"

Julian Mateo writes, “I have been in NYC for the past 5 years and am headed to Kellogg this fall for business school. Looking forward to hanging out with other Choaties in the Chicago area!”

Austin Ogilvie founded Yhat, Inc. (yhathq.com), a NYC-based enterprise tech startup, out of his apartment in Brooklyn along with his roommate, Greg Lamp, a fellow UVA graduate. The company raises financing from top venture capitalists and angel investors in New York, Austin, and Nashville and is headquartered in the Flatiron District of Manhattan.

Tochi Onyebuchi’s novelette “Place of Worship” appeared in the Sept. 2014 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction. Earlier in the year, his short story "Zen and the Art of an Android Beatdown, Or Cecile Meets a Boxer: A Love Story" appeared in Ideomancer Magazine, and his regular column at Nowhere Magazine tackles various subjects in international criminality, from Colombian moneylaundering schemes to cigarette smuggling in the Balkans to jewel thieves. Last fall, he participated in the Columbia Law Clinic on the Consequences of Mass Incarceration and worked with a team to secure

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habeas corpus relief for a Connecticut man wrongfully imprisoned for 18 years. The case and the court victory were covered in The New York Times. Finally, on March 27, the Black Law Students Association at Columbia held its 20th annual Paul Robeson Gala, honoring distinguished alumni of the school. The evening’s keynote speaker was Kristen Clarke, Chief of the Civil Rights Bureau at the NY Attorney General’s Office, CLS ’00, and more important, CRH ’93. Also in attendance were Synne Chapman ’07 and Yahonnes Cleary ’96. Tochi is spending his third and final year of law school in Paris, studying for a Master en droit économique at L’institut d’études politiques (Sciences Po) as part of a dual degree program between Sciences Po and Columbia Law School.

’09

Classmates Ali Cooper-Ponte and Tom Guo were married on July 2, 2014.

’10 Katie Kilkenny and Serena Elavia were chosen as fellows in Atlantic Media’s Fellowship Program for the 2014–15 year. Katie and Serena will both be working with the prestigious Atlantic Monthly for their web and print divisions.

Sarah Kornacki graduated from Bates College at the end of May. She is now pursuing a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education from Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass., and teaching at Buckingham Browne & Nichols Lower School.

Hannah Schneider, a junior at Georgetown University and Russian major and government minor, started “Music from the Mountains” to help aspiring young musicians in the remote mountains of the North Caucasus. As the first American violinist to study at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Hannah spent the spring semester in the North Caucasus of Russia helping young musicians gain more recognition in the music world. http://college.georgetown.edu/ collegenews/music-from-the-mountains.html ’13

1 1 Ian Grajewski ’05 married

2 Kyle McDonnell ’05 and wife,

3 Caleb Johnson ’10 graduated

4 Sophie Nitkin ’06 and AJ

Leslie Foote at the Riverbend Club in Kohler, Wisconsin on May 24, 2014. There were 14 Choaties in attendance. The couple reside in Austin, Texas.

Cristina, welcomed daughter Madison Cristina McDonnell on April 1, 2014, two days after their first wedding anniversary!

from West Point in May and received his bachelor’s degree in Chinese and Russian as well as a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. In October he will post to Korea where he will be attached to the 2nd infantry division.

Meyer ’06 participated in Cycle for Survival, where their team raised more than $10,000 for Memorial Sloane Kettering Hospital. AJ rode in support of Choate’s Associate Director of Admission and Financial Aid Andy Noel.

Ashish Patel writes, “I am majoring in Aerospace Engineering at Purdue. During my junior year at Choate, I was selected as one of 16 students to participate in the Science Research Program.

Upon completing this course, I worked as an unpaid researcher for 10 weeks, completing an independent brain tumor research project at the Upper Michigan Brain Tumor Center. I co-authored a journal article based on my work over the summer titled ”Quantification of Protoporphyrin IX Accumulation in Glioblastoma Cells: A New Technique,” published in March 2014 in ISRN Surgery. ”

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IN MEMORIAM | Remembering Those We Have Lost Alumni and Alumnae

’35 C

Stuart M. Low, 96, a retired business executive, died March 29, 2014, in Guilford, Conn. Born in Scarsdale, N.Y., Stuart came to Choate in 1931; he played tennis and basketball, and was in the French Club. After graduating from the University of Michigan, he served in the Army during World War II, attaining the rank of Major. In a long and varied career, he published the Downers Grove Journal in Illinois; was an executive in the public relations office of the pharmaceutical manufacturer Pfizer; and ran Flents Products Co., a manufacturer of safety equipment.

He retired in 1998 at age 80. Stuart had been chairman of the Democratic Town Committee of Darien, Conn.; a member of the Guilford Democratic Town Committee; and on the Board of the Guilford Preservation Alliance. He

enjoyed history, politics, tennis, and railroads. In May 2010, Stuart, one of the few surviving members of John F. Kennedy’s class, had lunch with author Chris Matthews, who was on campus researching his book Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero. Stuart was a member of The Choate Society, those alumni and alumnae who have left a bequest to the School. He leaves his wife, Myra Low, 29 Grove Hill Rd., Guilford, CT 06437; a son; three grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. A brother, the late Robert Low ’37, also attended Choate.

’37 C Eugene H. Arrendell, 96, a retired physician, died March 13, 2014, in Tulsa, Okla. Born in Ponca City, Okla., Gene came to Choate in 1934. He was Chairman of the Student Council, Captain of football, Vice President of the Athletic Association, Fire Chief, in the Glee Club, and on the board of

The Brief. He earned bachelor’s and medical degrees from the University of Oklahoma, then served as a Lieutenant J. G. in the Navy’s Medical Corps in the Pacific. After World War II, he returned to Ponca City as a family physician, initially in practice with his father. In 1979, Gene retired from private practice and was a primary care physician at the University of Oklahoma. Interested in art, he was a docent at two Oklahoma museums. He was widowed twice, and leaves two sons, including Michael Arrendell, 7300 Humboldt Hill Rd., Eureka, CA 95503; four stepchildren; two grandchildren; four step-grandchildren, and a brother, C. W. Arrendell Jr. ’35.

’38 RH Mary Brown Griggs, 93, a retired realtor, died June 22, 2014, in Montecito, Calif. Born in Kenilworth, Ill., Mary came to Rosemary Hall in 1934.

She was Captain of hockey and won the School athletic cup; she was also in the Choir and several school plays.

After graduating from Stanford, she was engaged in various community activities.

When her children were grown, she was a realtor in St. Paul, Minn., for 15 years. Mary was an accomplished portrait painter; her favorite subjects were children and pets, although she painted adults as well. She leaves three children; seven grandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and her twin sister, Beatrice “Brownie” Borden ’38, 300 Hot Springs Rd., Montecito, CA 93108.

’40 RH Alice C. Brewer Steele, 91, a retired journalist, died May 9, 2014, in Scarborough, Maine. Born in Omaha, Alice came to Rosemary Hall in 1938; she was in the Choir, the Glee Club, and the French Club, and was School Recorder. After Rosemary Hall, she earned degrees from Smith and the Columbia School of Journalism, then was a reporter at the New Bedford (Mass.) Standard Times, which was owned by her parents. Alice enjoyed Japanese art, reading, and conservation. She leaves six children and six grandchildren.

Mabel “Bebe” Breese Wellinghoff, 92, a longtime Rosemary Hall Class Agent, died April 12, 2014, in Winter Haven, Fla. Born in Elmira, N.Y., Bebe came to Rosemary Hall in 1936.

She earned 10 bars on the Committee, was head of the Kindly Club, and was

on the Chapel Committee and in the Glee Club. She then attended Sweet Briar College. Bebe loved music, especially opera, and literature, especially Shakespeare. She leaves three daughters, including Sally B. Crawford ’71, 140 High St., Exeter, NH 03833; eight grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.

’43 C Joseph N. Hoyt, 88, a retired farmer, died March 20, 2014, in Chillicothe, Ohio. Born in Chillicothe, Joe came to Choate in 1939; he sang in the choir and worked on the School farm. During World War II he served in the Navy as a Seabee in the Philippines and China. He then earned a bachelor’s degree from Ohio State’s College of Agriculture. Joe raised cattle and Morgan horses on his farm in Chillicothe, and was active in the community, serving as president of the Chillicothe Country Club and on the board of Grandview Cemetery. For many years he summered in Jaffrey, N.H. He leaves his wife, Ann Hoyt, P.O. Box 1832, Chillicothe, OH 45601; five children; and nine grandchildren. A brother, the late Charles N. Hoyt ’35, also attended Choate, as did cousins of Joe’s generation, including the late Joseph N. White III ’32, Frederick Wilder White ’34, Kenneth White ’44, and Zadoc “Zed” Brown ’36; as well as cousins in the next generation, including Joseph N. “Jody” White IV ’57, Eric Shaw White ’59, Zadoc White Brown ’61, Alan Brown ’64, and the late Lawrence Brown’70, among others. Seth Hoyt ’61 is a nephew.

David Tod, 88, an investment executive, died April 23, 2014, in Youngstown, Ohio. Born in Youngstown, David came to Choate in 1939; he was on the Library Committee, was a Campus Cop, lettered in squash, and was captain of varsity golf. After WWII service in the Army Air Forces, he graduated from MIT, then worked briefly for Youngstown Sheet and Tube. He joined the investment firm of Prescott, Ball & Turben in Youngstown, and later co-founded a venture capital company, Torent, Inc. That firm provided capital for McDonald Steel, for which David served as President and Chairman.

Active in Youngstown community life, he was President of the Youngstown Club and the local YMCA, and served on the Youngstown State Educational Foundation. He enjoyed golf, handball, skeet, tennis, and squash. He leaves

three children, including David Tod II ’75, 1245 Haymarket Way, Hudson, OH 44236 and Elizabeth McMillan ’77; and six grandchildren including Maggie McMillan ’07. A brother, the late Fred Tod ’38, also attended Choate. David was a member of The Choate Society, those alumni and alumnae who have left a bequest to the School.

Alan W. Zeller, 88, a retired physician, died May 4, 2014, in New Harbor, Maine. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Alan came to Choate in 1941, where he lettered in wrestling, rowed crew, and was in the orchestra. He attended Dartmouth briefly before joining the Merchant Marines. During World War II, he sailed in North Atlantic convoys and participated in the 1944 Normandy invasion. After the war, he returned to Dartmouth, earned a degree in business administration, then sailed around the world and worked for a New York steamship company. He then earned his M.D. from McGill University, completed an internship at Maine Medical Center in Portland, and served a five-year surgical residency at Dartmouth. He practiced surgery in Damariscotta, Maine, and was later medical director of the Bath Iron Works. Alan practiced and taught surgery overseas at various points: in Afghanistan and Ghana in the 1970s, and with the Peace Corps in Sierra Leone and the Balkans in the 1980s. He retired in 1993 and enjoyed sailing with his family. He was widowed twice. He leaves five children, including Robert Zeller ’76, 32 Bradford St., Boston, MA 02118, and George Zeller ’79; three stepsons; and a sister.

’44 C Kennon Jayne, 88, a former executive of IBM, died June 30, 2014, in Norwalk, Conn. Born in New York City, Ken came to Choate in 1941; he lettered in wrestling and was a Campus Cop. After graduating from Williams, he was a lieutenant in the Navy during the Korean War. He then started his career at IBM as a marketing manager.

Ken was active in New Canaan, Conn., volunteering for the YMCA, the United Way, and other organizations, including his church, St. Mark’s. He leaves his wife, Sabra Jayne, 181 South Ave., New Canaan, CT 06840; four sons; six grandchildren; and a sister.

BULLETIN | FALL 2014 55

’46 C Peter R. Ehrlich, 83, a retired investment adviser, died February 27, 2014, in Bedford, N.Y. Born in Cambridge, Mass., Peter came to Choate in 1944; he played league football, basketball, and tennis, and was Associate Editor of The News. He then earned a bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins and served in the National Guard. He spent 20 years with Merrill Lynch before starting his own firm, Peter Ehrlich and Associates, in 1974. Active in community life, Peter was on the boards of the United Way, the Bedford Historical Society, and St. Matthew’s Church. He also worked on commissions charged with planning, developing, and preserving open space in Bedford. He leaves his wife, Selby Newell Brown, 59 Pound Ridge Rd., Bedford, NY 10506; four sons; four grandchildren; and a brother. An uncle, the late Robert J. Mayer ’28, also attended Choate.

William Whittemore Scott Jr., 85, a lobsterman and carpenter, died March 14, 2014. Born in Boston, Whit came to Choate in 1943, where he lettered in hockey. In the 1950s he was a lobsterman and fisherman, and later was a carpenter, building new homes and specializing in home improvement. Whit loved the outdoors, whether hunting, fishing, or clamming; he also rescued dogs. He leaves his wife, Virginia Scott, 59 Deer Path Circle, Brewster MA 02631; three children; 12 grandchildren; and 13 grandchildren. ’47 C David D. Closson, 85, a retired printer, died July 7, 2014, in Shepard Hill, N.H. Born in Orange, N.J., David came to Choate in 1944; he lettered in crew, ran track, and was in the Band, the Orchestra, and the Drama Club.

After Choate, he attended the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., and served four years in the National Guard. He then joined the Record Print Shop in Plymouth, N.H., publishers of the weekly Record and Ashland Citizen newspapers. He retired in 1998. David enjoyed boating, photography, and big band music. He leaves a stepdaughter.

Arthur W. Mudge, 84, a retired international economic development officer, died May 23, 2014, in Hanover, N.H. Born in Andover, Mass., Arthur came to Choate in 1943. He lettered in basketball, was Managing Editor of

The News; won a school prize for excellence in math and science; and was in the Cum Laude Society and the Altar Guild. After graduating from Princeton, he served in Korea with the Army Corps of Engineers, then earned a law degree from Harvard. Arthur practiced law in New Hampshire for 10 years, and then joined the U. S. Agency for International Development, overseeing programs in Panama, Peru, Bolivia, Guyana, Nicaragua, and Sudan. In 1979, he was a fellow at the Harvard Center for International Affairs. He later resumed his law practice but remained an international consultant. He enjoyed hiking mountain ranges from the Andes to the Himalayas, and was an enthusiastic birder. He leaves his wife, Mary C. Mudge, 80 Lyme Rd., Hanover, NH 03755; four daughters; five grandchildren; and a sister.

soccer, was on the board of The Brief, and was in the Altar Guild, the Southern Club, and the Current History Club.

After graduating from Williams, he served in the Air Force, then earned his M.D. from Cornell Medical School. He completed his residency at New York Hospital, where he was chief resident in pediatrics. Bill then practiced pediatric medicine in New York City, retiring in 2001. New York magazine recognized him as one of New York’s top pediatricians; he was associate attending pediatrician at New York Hospital and a clinical associate professor at Cornell Medical School. He leaves his wife, Elizabeth Smith, 428 Grove Place, Vero Beach, FL 32963; two children; two stepchildren; three grandchildren; a sister; and a brother, Peter Seed ’55.

Another brother, the late Allen Seed ’43, also attended Choate.

’48 C Sam P. Davis Jr., 84, a retired insurance and banking executive, died April 21, 2014, in Sarasota, Fla., of congestive heart failure. Born in Lakeland, Fla., Sam came to Choate in 1945, where he played tennis and squash, and rowed crew. After graduating from Middlebury, he enjoyed a lengthy career in banking and insurance in New York City, most recently as Vice President of the Estate Distribution Corp. Sam moved to Florida in retirement. He leaves several cousins. He was a member of The Choate Society, those alumni and alumnae who have left a bequest to the School.

Milo W. Hyde, 83, an executive of a boat manufacturing firm, died March 19, 2014, in Collierville, Tenn.

Born in Memphis, Milo came to Choate in 1945. He was in the Southern Club and lettered in wrestling and in football, for which he won a school award. He was also captain of the undefeated 1948 varsity track team; his specialties were shot put and discus. After graduation from Vanderbilt and service in the Army, Milo worked for Arrowglass Boat in Memphis. He leaves his wife, Barbara Hyde, 105 Berryfield Circle, Collierville, TN 38017; three children; four grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

William T. Seed, 83, a retired physician, died June 3, 2014 in Vero Beach, Fla. Born in New York City, Bill came to Choate in 1947. He lettered in

’50 RH Phyllis Higgins Fletcher, 81, a retired school administrator, died April 16, 2014, in Catskill, N.Y. Born in New York City, Phyllis came to Rosemary Hall in 1946; she was head of the Chapel Committee. She then attended Pine Manor Junior College and Bouvé College, which was affiliated with Tufts University.

She married and returned to New York.

After her children were grown, she became an administrator with The Town School in New York. She leaves two sons, including Bradford Fletcher, 2503 Hancock Expressway, Colorado Springs, CO 80910.

Dorothea Sherman Hamilton, 81, a retired human services executive, died April 10, 2014, in Stratford, Conn.

Born in New York City, Dot came to Rosemary Hall in 1944. She was Song Mistress, on the Kindly Club Council, the Question Mark Board, and the Library Committee; she was also President of Philomel and a Marshal. She attended Skidmore and graduated from the University of Michigan, then moved with her husband to Scotland. Returning to the United States in 1983, Dot earned a Master of Social Work degree and was a program supervisor for the Connecticut Department of Children and Families. She leaves four children.

Ann Ludlow Jackson, 82, active in community life, died February 21, 2014, in Intervale, N.H. Born in New York City, Ann came to Rosemary Hall in

1944, where she was Captain of track for two years, Captain of tennis for one year, was on the first hockey team and the Fire Squad, and was a Marshal. She then attended Colby Sawyer College and moved to York, Maine, where she and her husband reared their four children. She was a quilter, creating works of art for charities and family.

She also enjoyed skiing, golf, and tennis.

She leaves four children, including Jane Grubb, P.O. Box 1403, North Conway, NH 03860; 12 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

’54 C Brayton Campbell Jr., 77, a stock broker, died April 16, 2013. Born in New York City, Brayton came to Choate in 1951; he was in the Camera Club and the Chess Club, and lettered in soccer and lacrosse. After graduation from Denison College, he became a stock broker, first for Merrill Lynch and later for Wells Fargo and Wachovia Securities. He was Chairman of the Board of Planning and Zoning for Fairview, Texas, where he lived. Brayton also was interested in animal rescue and in education. He leaves his wife, Colleen Campbell, 1641 Old Stacy Rd., Fairview, TX 75069; three children; five grandchildren; and a sister, Nancy Stroh ’53.

Norris “Mike” Love, 77, a retired advertising executive, died March 27, 2014, in Winnetka, Ill. Born in Chicago, Mike came to Choate in 1951.

He graduated first in his class, earning School prizes in English, math, science, combined math and science, and skeet shooting. A member of the Cum Laude Society, he was President of the Bridge Club and the Skeet Club, was Managing Editor of the Literary Magazine, played varsity basketball, and was in the Spanish National Honor Society and the Rod and Gun Club. His classmates voted him “Most Brilliant.” After earning a bachelor’s degree from Princeton and an MBA from Stanford, Mike worked for D’Arcy Advertising and Campbell-Mithun Advertising. Active in the community, he was Dean of the Lake Forest School of Management, a founder of the Lake Michigan Federation, and a member of several environmental groups, including the Des Plaines Wetlands Conservatory and Trout Unlimited, and was a trustee of the Chicago Zoo.

56 IN MEMORIAM

He enjoyed fishing, hunting, curling, and golf. Norris was a member of The Choate Society, those alumni and alumnae who have left a bequest to the School. He leaves his wife, Marcie Love, 1175 Pelham Rd., Winnetka, IL 60093; three daughters; and six grandchildren.

’57 C

John D. “Mike” Mixsell, 74, a retired Army officer, died March 5, 2014, in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Born in Bethlehem, Pa., Mike came to Choate in 1954. He was a senior editor of The News, on the sailing team, and in the French Club. After Choate, he went to St. Lawrence University, where he enrolled in the Reserve Officers Training Corps.

He joined the Army as a 2nd Lieutenant and served in Nebraska, Maryland, Germany, Vietnam, and Turkey, retiring with the rank of Major. He then worked as an administrator at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls for more than 20 years. Mike enjoyed traveling and University of Northern Iowa wrestling.

He was the official announcer for all home matches for more than 30 years.

He leaves his former wife, Judy Mixsell, 423 West 1st St., Cedar Falls, IA 50613; six children; and 11 grandchildren. His father, the late John Mixsell Sr. ’23; his uncle, the late Edwin Mixsell ’20; and his brothers, Steve Mixsell ’60 and Hank Mixsell ’64, also attended Choate.

Walter Lee Pierson, 74, a retired headmaster, died March 17, 2014, in Branford, Conn. Born in New Haven, Conn., Lee came to Choate in 1952. He was on the Student Council, was Chair of the Honor Committee, was in St. Andrew’s Cabinet and on the board of The Brief, and was President of the Current History Club; he also lettered in football and crew, and won a School prize in crew. He was awarded the School Seal Prize, the highest honor the School can bestow on a student.

His classmates voted him to be the one who had “Done Most for Choate.”

He then earned a bachelor’s degree from Princeton, a master’s from Penn, and a Ph.D. in education from Harvard.

Lee had a lifelong career in education, starting as a teacher at Exeter. In 1973, at age 34, he became the youngest President of Athens College, an independent elementary and high school in Greece. He then returned to the United States, and was Headmaster of Rye Country Day School in Rye, N.Y. for 14

years, the Francis Parker School in San Diego for eight years, and the Collegiate School in New York City for two years.

Lee then was interim Headmaster at a number of schools, including Cincinnati Country Day School, Phoenix Country Day School, and the Indian Springs School in Alabama. He was a special assistant to four U. S. Commissioners of Education and served on various boards of trustees, including the Windward School for learning-disabled children in White Plains, N.Y. He enjoyed reading, especially history and biography, and travel. He leaves his wife, Andrée R. Pierson, 28 Summer Island Point, Branford, CT 06405; two children; and three grandchildren.

Chap Barnes ’58

’58 C Chaplin B. Barnes, 73, a retired lawyer and conservationist, died July 20, 2014, in Westerly, R.I. Born in New Haven, Chap came to Choate in 1953.

He was President of the Mineral Club, in the Dramatics Club, the French Club, and the Cum Laude Society, and won School prizes for excellence in English and Latin. After earning bachelor’s and law degrees from Yale, he studied international law at Oxford; his Yale Law School thesis was on the conservation easement, then a new concept. In a long career, he headed the international program of the National Audubon Society, worked for the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Council on Environmental Quality, and served on a conference studying the environmental effects of nuclear war. In 1985, he moved to the Rhode Island coast to practice law. Chap became involved with many conservation organizations, and founded the

Watch Hill (R.I.) Conservancy. Active in community life, he was given many service awards; a part of the shoreline was renamed the Chaplin B. Barnes Napatree Point Conservation Area. Chap was a member of The Choate Society, those alumni and alumnae who have left a bequest to the School. He leaves his wife, Barbara Barnes, 9 Essex Dr., Westerly, RI 02891; two children; two stepchildren; three grandchildren; and four step-grandchildren.

’60 C

James A. Clarkson III, 72, a retired securities regulator, died April 23, 2014. Born in New York City, Jim came to Choate in 1957. He was on the Executive Board of the Current History Club and was in St. Andrew’s Cabinet, Gold Key, and the Rod and Gun Club.

After graduating from Princeton, he earned a master’s degree from Columbia and a law degree from the NYU School of Law. He then joined the Securities and Exchange Commission, where he rose to be Director of Regional Office Operations in the Enforcement Division.

He provided technical assistance and training to international securities regulators in Russia, China, Hong Kong, and India. Jim was given the SEC’s Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor that can be given a staff member. He leaves his wife, Jan Clarkson, 9917 E. Bexhill Dr., Kensington, MD 20895; two children; two grandchildren, and a brother, Geoffrey Clarkson ’64.

’67 C Richard G. Rockefeller, 65, a physician, died June 13, 2014, when the small plane he was piloting crashed in Westchester County, N.Y. Born in New York City, Dick came to Choate in 1963.

He won School prizes for poetry and excellence in scholarship; was Editor in Chief of the Literary Magazine; lettered in skiing; was on the Student Council; was in the Cum Laude Society and the Altar Guild; was President of the Dramatics Club; and in his sixth form year was co-winner of the School Seal Prize. He also played solo piano, guitar, and, most notably, the bagpipes.

After Choate, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Harvard, and his M.D. from its medical school. Dick was a family physician who practiced in Falmouth, Maine, and taught in nearby Portland. But mostly, he was known for his work with Doctors Without Borders,

whose United States advisory board he chaired for 21 years, and for founding the nonprofit Health Commons Institute, which seeks to improve communication between doctors and patients. He was also a founder of Hour Exchange Portland, a credit barter program. He chaired the board of Maine Coast Heritage Trust from 2000 until 2006.

He leaves his wife, Nancy Rockefeller, 71 Foreside Rd., Falmouth, ME 04105; two children; a brother; and four sisters.

Several of Dick’s relatives attended Choate or Rosemary Hall, including cousins Steven Rockefeller ’78, Rachel Pierson ’78, Abby Simpson ’76, Liv Rockefeller ’75, and Mary Gilbert ’57.

Curtis LeSage, 65, a retired advertising executive, died July 4, 2014, in Germany. Born in Brattleboro, Vt., Curt came to Choate in 1963. He lettered in squash, was on the business board of the Literary Magazine, and was in the Democratic Club, the Ski Club, the Press Club, and the French Club. After graduating from Tufts and the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Ariz., he began his advertising career at Leo Burnett in Chicago, later joining Ogilvy & Mather in New York, for whom he worked in Vienna, Frankfurt, London, and elsewhere. He retired from WPP Group in 2007. Curt enjoyed travel and was fluent in several languages. He leaves his mother and two sisters. His father, the late Bernard LeSage ’42, also attended Choate.

’69 C

Bennet B. “Tripp” Young III, 62, a real estate agent, died March 22, 2014, in Lakewood, Colo. Born in Bronxville, N.Y., Tripp came to Choate in 1966. He was in the Automobile Club and the French Club and played varsity soccer and hockey, winning the Pudvah hockey trophy in his sixth form year.

After graduating from the University of Denver, he remained in Colorado, and was a real estate agent for many years.

Always a hockey fan, Tripp was a Board member and volunteer coach for the Colorado Golden Eagles Special Hockey team. He also tutored inner-city children.

He enjoyed painting, especially the Rocky Mountains. He leaves his wife, Daphne Young, 70 Golden Eagle Ln., Littleton, CO 80127; three children; a brother, Charles Kent Young ’77; a sister, Susan “Terry” Vandewater ’76; and his mother.

BULLETIN | FALL 2014 57

’72 C

Thomas C. Hazen, 60, a retired merchandise buyer, died April 13, 2014, in Easton, Md. Born in Princeton, N.J., Tom came to Choate in 1968. He was President of the Glee Club and in the Maiyeros, and won a school prize for outstanding contribution to choral music. He was also President of the Aeronautics Club, and won a prize for excellence in manual arts. After graduating from Penn, he spent his career in retail, first with L. Bamberger & Co. and later with R.H. Macy, both in New York.

A rare degenerative disease affecting his lungs forced him to retire 10 years ago. Until he could no longer travel, he enjoyed visiting foreign countries, particularly Italy and England. He also liked reading, music, the arts, boating, and photography. Tom was a member of The Choate Society, those alumni and alumnae who have left a bequest to the School. He leaves a brother, George Hazen ’69, 913 Forest Terrace, Annapolis, MD 21409; a sister; and his parents.

His father, Prof. Emeritus David Hazen ’44, 5731 Pirates Cove Rd., Oxford, MD 21654, also attended Choate.

’82

Joseph E. “Jay” Lake Jr., 49, a marketer and writer, died June 1, 2014, of cancer. Born in Taiwan, Jay traveled extensively as a child and came to Choate Rosemary Hall in 1979. He lettered in archery, was Associate Editor of The Spectrum, and was in the Cum Laude Society, the Far Eastern Society, and the Astronomy Club. After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, he worked in advertising and marketing in the high-tech industry, holding a patent for a system to manage multimedia communication.

He also wrote science fiction and fantasy, authoring more than 300 published short stories and novels.

Jay blogged extensively and taught at writing workshops. After being diagnosed with colon cancer, he had his entire genome sequenced in the hope that it might benefit future cancer patients. He leaves his wife, Susan Lake, P.O. Box 42611, Portland, OR 972420611; a daughter; his parents; and two siblings.

’83

Elizabeth “Lisa” Jarvis, 48, an executive of a machine tool company, died of cancer February 1, 2014 in Hartford, Conn. Born in Hartford, Lisa came to Choate Rosemary Hall in 1979.

She was Editor of The Brief, a writer for The News, in the Cum Laude Society, and co-captain of girls crew in her fifth form and sixth form years (see story, pg. 22). In 1983, when the team went undefeated, she won a school award for excellence in crew. She also was awarded the School Seal Prize, the highest honor given a student. After Choate, she spent a year traveling, then earned a degree in economics from Yale. She joined the family business, Jarvis Products Corp., where she was a vice president and director of the company’s parent corporation. Lisa enjoyed many sports, playing golf competitively as well as snow and water skiing and fishing. She also was skilled at landscaping. She leaves her father, Penfield Jarvis ’57, 195 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford CT 06117; a brother, Jonathan Jarvis P ’15; and a stepsister. Two uncles, Marshall Jarvis ’60 and Wallace Jarvis ’63, also attended Choate, as did her cousins, Jason Jarvis ’87, Clayton Jarvis ’89, and Alex Jarvis ’17, and her brother’s stepson, Will Woolfson Jarvis ’15.

Faculty and Staff Herbert Coursen Jr., who taught English at Choate from 1958 to 1962, died Dec. 3, 2011, in Brunswick, Maine.

He was 78. Herb was born in Newark, N. J., and before coming to Choate had earned a degree from Amherst College, had been an Air Force fighter pilot, and had taught at Newark Academy.

At Choate, in addition to teaching, he was adviser to The Brief and coached varsity squash. After Choate, he earned a Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut and taught at Bowdoin College, where he was chairman of the English department for more than 25 years. He was widely published, writing 35 novels, 31 volumes of poetry, and 16 books on Shakespeare. He was also an active member of Veterans for Peace.

He leaves three daughters and four grandchildren.

Sandra Geremia Devine, who worked in the School Store for 20 years, died April 5, 2014, in Branford, Conn.

She was 72. Born in New Haven, Sandy started at Choate in 1983 as an administrative secretary in the School Store.

She became a buyer in 1984, Assistant Manager and book buyer in 1988, and manager in 1996, retiring in 2003.

For the next 10 years she temporarily assisted various school departments, Sandy leaves her husband, Vincent Devine, 136 Stephen Dr., Meriden, CT 06450; three children; 11 grandchildren; a sister; and a brother.

Our sympathy to the friends and family of the following alumni whose deaths are reported with sorrow: David W. Busing ’49 October 29, 2012 Charles M. Willett ’49 February 5, 2012

Our condolences to the following: C. W. Arrendell ’35, whose brother, Eugene Arrendell ’37, died in March 2014.

Brownie Borden ’38, whose twin sister, Mary Griggs ’38, died in June 2014.

David Hazen ’44, whose son, and George Hazen ’69, whose brother, Tom Hazen ’72, died in April 2014.

Nancy Stroh ’53, whose brother, Brayton Campbell ’54, died in April 2013.

Peter Seed ’55, whose brother, William Seed ’49, died in June 2014.

Mary Gilbert ’57, whose cousin, Dick Rockefeller ’67, died in June 2014.

Pen Jarvis ’57, whose daughter, Lisa Jarvis ’83, died in February 2014.

Jody White ’57, whose cousin, Joseph Hoyt ’43, died in March 2014.

Eric Shaw White ’59, and Alan Brown ’64, whose cousin, Joseph Hoyt ’43, died in March 2014.

Marshall Jarvis ’60 and Wallace Jarvis ’63, whose niece, and Jason Jarvis ’87, Clayton Jarvis ’89, and Alex Jarvis ’17, whose cousin, and Will Woolfson Jarvis ’15, whose step-aunt, Lisa Jarvis ’83, died in February 2014.

Steve Mixsell ’60 and Hank Mixsell ’64, whose brother, Mike Mixsell ’57, died in March 2014.

Zadoc Brown ’61, whose cousin, and Seth Hoyt ’61, whose uncle, Joseph Hoyt ’43, died in March 2014.

Geoff Clarkson ’64, whose brother, Jim Clarkson ’60, died in April 2014.

Sally Wellinghoff Crawford ’71, whose mother, Mabel Breese Wellinghoff ’40, died in April 2014.

W. Temple Webber III ’74, whose father, W. Temple Webber Jr. ’49, died in July 2014.

Liv Rockefeller ’75, Abby Simpson ’76, Steven Rockefeller ’78, and Rachel Pierson ’78, whose cousin, Dick Rockefeller ’67, died in June 2014.

David Tod ’75 and Elizabeth McMillan ’77, whose father, David Tod ’43, and Maggie McMillan ’07, whose grandfather, died in April 2014.

Terry Vandewater ’76 and Kent Young ’77, whose brother, Tripp Young ’69, died in March 2014.

Robert Zeller ’76 and his brother George ’79, whose father, Alan Zeller ’43, died in May 2014.

58

SCOREBOARD | Sports Wrap-up

Alex Newhouse ’14

Kate Floyd ’14

Sailing wins 1st place at the 2014 CT State Championship

Choate Sailing had a tremendous season finishing first of 20 teams at the 2014 CT State Championship held at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. Undefeated Girls crew finished 2nd in the New England Regatta. Varsity baseball earned a stellar 12-2 record in the Founders League. Varsity softball, undefeated through most of its season, fell to Williston in the New England Semi-finals.

Boys varsity tennis made it the New Englands once again this year. Girls varsity water polo, strong all season, suffered an upset by Andover in final seconds of the NE Championship game. Boys track and field finished 5th and girls 6th at the New England Championships.

BASEBALL Varsity Season Record: 18-4 Tri-Captains: Anthony A. DeSantis ’14, Philip M. Perrino ’14, & Joel J. Stevens ’15 Highlights: Finished 12-2 in Founders League; decisive victories over Hotchkiss and Taft CREW Boys Varsity Season Record: 4-4 Captains: Leo Shimonaka ’14 & Thomas W. Pescatore ’14 Highlights: Strong start, looking to be competitive down the stretch Girls Varsity Season Record: 12-0 Captains: Alexandra C. Klein ’14 & Afia A. Amoaka ’14 Highlights: Undefeated; finished 2nd at the New England Regatta GOLF Boys Varsity Season Record: 7-12 Captain: Myong K. Shin ’14 Girls Varsity Season Record: 3-5

LACROSSE Boys Varsity Season Record: 7-7 Captains: Jack M. Bertolini ’14, Cuyler D. Brodnax ’14, & Turner W. Uppgren ’14 Highlights: Started season strong 4-0; close loss to Taft Girls Varsity Season Record: 8-7-1 Captains: Caroline L. Buckholtz ’14, Amelia K. Schneider ’14 & Brooke M. Hodgson ’14 Highlights: Big win over Deerfield under the lights!

SAILING Varsity Season Record: 10-6 Captains: Dylan P. Farrell ’14 & Lucy H. Robison ’14 Highlights: Won CT Championship; missed bid for NE Championship

SOFTBALL Varsity Season Record: 13-2 Captains: Lauren G. Valentine ’14 & Stephanie J. Leonardo ’14 Highlights: Lost to Williston in New England Championship Semi-Finals; solid pitching by Captain Lauren Valentine ’14.

TENNIS Boys Varsity Season Record: 11-5 Captain: Alexander J. Newhouse ’14 Highlights: Made it to the New England Tournament Girls Varsity Season Record: 4-10 Captain: Madeleine B. Barnes ’14 TRACK AND FIELD Boys Varsity Season Record: 6-1 Captains: Spencer M. Birney ’14 Highlights: Placed 5th at New England Championships; Sean Banda ’15 set the school record in 100m

Girls Varsity Season Record: 6-0 Captains: Katharine R. Floyd ’14 & Jennifer L. Sherwill ’14 Highlights: Placed 6th at New England Championships GIRLS WATER POLO Varsity Season Record: 11-9 Captains: Sophia J. Benson ’14 & Katherine M. Moeller ’14 Highlights: Beat Deerfield; lost to Andover in New England Finals VARSITY ULTIMATE FRISBEE Varsity Season Record: 4-12 Captains: Junno Tseng’14, Noah M. Hastings ’15 & Thomas J. Canna ’15 BOYS VOLLEYBALL Varsity Season Record: 6-5 Captains: Richard Y. Choi ’14 & Nuha Saho ’14 Highlights: Beat Exeter twice

BULLETIN | FALL 2014 59

Anna Camilleri '14, Lauren Valentine '14, and Chrissy Casazza '16

Joel Stevens ’15 throws a pitch.

Philemon Kinoti ‘15

Girls 4th boat completed an undefeated season

60

BOOKSHELF

In this issue, two sports journalists deliver impassioned portraits of their subjects – former NBA coach Phil Jackson, and the would-be NFL stars from Dunbar, an underserved community in Ft. Myers. Also, a tribute to an iconic figure in the sailing world for more than a half-century and a narrative about a visit to Cold Mountain, not only a destination, but a mythical haunt.

Seeking the Cave

By James Lenfestey ’62 | Reviewed by Audrey Alt

SEEKING THE CAVE Author: James Lenfestey ’62 Publisher: Milkweed Editions About the Reviewer: Audrey Alt is Choate’s Development Communications Specialist.

Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology probably isn’t the first work you’d think would come to mind while reading about a poet’s pilgrimage to China. Yet it was the opening lines of Masters’ “Fiddler Jones,” one of the fictional eulogies in that anthology, that I was reminded of at various points throughout Seeking the Cave (Milkweed Editions, 2014) by James Lenfestey ’62.

The lines are: The earth keeps some vibration going.

There in your heart, and that is you.

In 1974, living a hectic and stressful life, Lenfestey sought solace in the World Eye Bookshop in Greenfield, Mass., and one day its owner, Charlie Miller, handed him Cold Mountain: 100 Poems by T’ang Poet Han-shan, translated by Burton Watson. That day and that book changed his life, and more than 30 years later, Lenfestey journeyed to China to visit the ancient home and uncover the mysteries of his spiritual guide. In this part travelogue, part poetry collection, Lenfestey, as well as his readers, discover much more.

Humbly and respectfully, Lenfestey takes us from Minneapolis to Japan and finally to China, introducing us as he goes to his traveling companions, who are related in various ways and devoted in varying degrees to the poetry of China and Han-shan. “It’s as if you are in love with someone else,” Lenfestey’s wife tells him as he departs.

Lenfestey’s narrative about his trip to Cold Mountain (the name of both the destination and the taken name of the poet Han-shan, who called the mountain home) is broken up into three sections and then again into short chapters. Lenfestey inserts poems throughout the chapters; sometimes these poems are his own, sometimes Han-shan’s, and sometimes others’, well-known and less so. Lenfestey’s language is lovely in its storytelling, simple and truthful, and at

certain points, the inserted poems can seem disruptive.

However, what these poems provide beyond themselves is the opportunity to pause and reflect: when Lenfestey’s recollections give way to poems, they make room, too, for his readers’ own reflections.

Early in Lenfestey’s work, Abbot Minghai, an old friend of one of his traveling companions and a devoted Buddhist, explains, “You could say that the activities of a Zen monastery don’t depend on words, only sounds. As the meditation hall resonates, so does the rest of the monastery.” Lenfestey adds, “Perhaps the rest of the world resonates, too.” And later he writes, “Poets forge the marriage of right sound and right sense in the furnace of desire. Only then can they strike the bell that reverberates around the world and over the drifts of time.”

Lenfestey talks of singing, too, as he describes his mother’s passing (“…my sisters, my wife, and I sang her into heaven at ninety-four”) and as he describes himself – and everyone: “Inside all of us is singing. My own song grew loud enough for me to hear it in these last few years…”

This is a quiet book, and it is unassumingly thought-provoking if you allow it to be. While Lenfestey’s particular journey took him to China and to Cold Mountain, Seeking the Cave is a universal tale. After all, don’t all people have their own Cold Mountain they are seeking? The reader’s journey to discover what is constantly resonating, reverberating, and vibrating inside him or her, to finally name that very personal song, can be as rewarding as Lenfestey’s.

BULLETIN | FALL 2014 61

Fourth Down in Dunbar

By David A. Dorsey ’90 | Reviewed by John H. Connelly

FOURTH DOWN IN DUNBAR Author: David A. Dorsey ’90 Publisher: University Press of Florida About the Author: David Dorsey, former reporter for The Kansas City Star, is a reporter for The News-Press in Southwest Florida.

About the Reviewer: John H. Connelly is a history teacher, and served as varsity football coach from 1982-2011. He coached the book’s author during the 1989 Choate football season.

In football, fourth down on offense is decisionmaking time: Punt the ball to the opponent, or take a chance on a run or pass. In sports journalist David A. Dorsey’s new book, Fourth Down in Dunbar, fourth down is a metaphor for life in the underserved, primarily black community of Fort Myers, Fla., known as Dunbar. With his innumerable interviews of those whose roots are in Dunbar’s neighborhoods of Michigan Court, “Left Corner” or “The Bottom,” Dorsey seeks to discover why so many National Football League players came from this section of Fort Myers.

The answers repeat in this book: football offers athletically gifted males a way out of the Hobbesian “state of nature” that suffuses Dunbar, and it proffers the sugar plums of multimillion dollar NFL contracts and instant fame.

Intended or not, Fourth Down in Dunbar offers a sociological study of the type of urban crisis growing rapidly in this country. Brought into the drug trafficking loop by an expanding highway network in the early 1990s, Ft. Myers adjusted by widening its boulevards, wiping out most black-owned roadside businesses, the consequences of which are reminiscent of the dislocation wrought by Robert Moses’s urban renewal endeavors in New York. Such geographical determinism, Dorsey’s writing reveals, leads to desperate fourth down decisions made daily by those living in the shadowy end zones of blighted Dunbar. Beset by fractured families and limited educational horizons; tempted by the fast score of drug pushing; and mercilessly victimized by the attendant gun violence, too few have the success that capture Dorsey’s interest.

Football star Deion “Prime Time” Sanders is featured throughout Dorsey’s book as the gold standard for athletic males in Dunbar. This wealthy, charismatic, telegenic NFL Hall of Famer with two Super Bowl championships, and a 1992 National League Baseball Championship with the Atlanta Braves, is idolized and idealized by Dunbar’s athletic aspirants. Yet of the handful who’ve emerged to have NFL success, none is

as impressive as Tennessee Titans All-Pro defensive end Jevon Kearse. No less than seven of his immediate and extended family, including his father and brother, were murdered in the drugged-up environment. An outsized physique, a 4.43 forty-yard-dash time, and a 3.6 GPA gained him entry to college and the NFL. Too often, Dorsey’s narrative reveals the gambler’s fourth down choice: a risky quick-fix. On the field, record-setting Florida running back Noel Devine’s sublime 80-yard screen touchdown pass thrown from the 20-yard line evinces remarkable athletic prowess.

But readers learn that Devine’s own father and uncle, both star running backs at the same high school, died from drug-related AIDS complications. The terrain of Dunbar proves far more treacherous than the knowable dimensions of the gridiron.

Dorsey’s harrowing narrative tale of two brothers, Earnest and Brandon Graham, unfolds with a strong Dickensian motif. Earnest, the straight-ahead tough runner for Mariner High School, maximizes his realism, industry, and work ethic to fight his way to a successful career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “I always keep my eye on the prize,” Earnest tells Dorsey. The sidestepping football running back brother, Brandon, is pinned down by the vicissitudes of life in Dunbar neighborhoods; unable to separate fact from fantasy, he became subsumed by street pushers and rap-music fantasy. Only while in prison for drug selling does he – like his father before him – gain clarity. In fact, prison proves salutary for some of Dorsey’s subjects. It lifts one from the life-threatening morass of The Hood while providing time to reflect; like a football punted away, no risky decisions need be made, and one can reassess before “taking the field again.”

Ultimately, David Dorsey laments the at-bottom truth: Dunbar remains a place “where children always seemed to be facing fourth down, scrambling and hoping for a way to finish first.”

62

The Strenuous Life of Harry Anderson

By Roger Vaughan ’55 | Reviewed by Susan P. Farrell

THE STRENUOUS LIFE OF HARRY ANDERSON Author: Roger Vaughan ’55 Publisher: Mystic Seaport; 1ST edition About the Reviewer: Susan Farrell is Director of Admission and Financial Aid for Choate’s Summer Programs and Assistant Coach of Choate’s Coed Varsity Sailing Team and Girls Varsity Soccer Team. She has spent many of the last 12 summers driving junior sailors, boats, and gear to regattas and coordinating a clubsponsored junior sailing program in Madison, Conn.

Roger Vaughan’s fascinating biography of sailing icon Harry Anderson is both wonderful to read and beautiful to look at, and is sure to be of particular interest to sailing enthusiasts and American history buffs alike. From the engaging cover portrait through to the appendices, The Strenuous Life of Harry Anderson welcomes and rewards the reader as Vaughan offers an appealing account of Anderson’s numerous experiences on and off the water and his vast contributions to all facets of sailing.

Spanning 12 chapters rich in historic detail, with photographic accompaniment, Vaughan’s biography pays homage to the many dimensions of a living legend in the world of sailing. While Anderson’s more than 50 years of influence at the local, regional, national, and international levels of sailing figure most prominently, his family connections to the movers and shakers of 19th and 20th century America and his World War II combat experience in the European Theater under General Patton also get their due.

Anderson’s own voice and perspective come through with the frequent inclusion of notes, logs, and letters written throughout his life. As Vaughan puts it, no detail is insignificant to Anderson, and Vaughan does an impressive job of weaving together decades worth of Anderson’s observations and opinions on a wide array of subjects and experiences.

Several recurring themes flow through the biography and define Anderson’s approach to life: the importance of being physically and mentally active (harkening back to his formative years at the Florida-Adirondacks School, now Ransom Everglades); the relevance of sailing and a strong belief in the educational value of what he refers to as sail training; the popularization and expansion of the sport with new classes of trailerable boats; and the importance of writing, interpreting, and applying good racing rules.

Throughout the chapters, the significance of the book’s title surfaces as Vaughan shows how Anderson has

long embraced the motivational message expressed in Theodore Roosevelt’s “Strenuous Life” speech of 1899.

Of special interest to Choate readers are the places, people, and programs that connect in some way to Choate sailing and to where and how the team competes. Choate’s home waters are those of the Yale Corinthian Yacht Club, the venue Harry Anderson (also a Yale graduate) helped find, finance, and fill with racing dinghies. The origin of the concrete ramp Choate sailors use to move 420s in and out of the water is shared in detail, and the rules which continue to govern team racing are based on the same rules Anderson helped write in the aftermath of the 1949 British-American Cup. Also of relevance to Choate sailors is Anderson’s continued support of college sailing, the positive effects of which continue to benefit high school sailors as they take their sport to the next level.

Abundantly clear is the fact that the biography is written by someone who knows sailing well, and indeed Vaughan’s website confirms the significance of sailing to him personally and professionally. Vaughan grew up sailing and has regularly incorporated sailing into all areas of his multimedia work. His first book was on Ted Turner’s America’s Cup syndicate and was published in 1975, and he has authored numerous sailing pieces in the ensuing 40 years including biographies, web reports, video narratives, magazine articles, and TV coverage. He also co-wrote the story for the 1992 feature film Wind – a movie well-known to a generation of junior sailors who have enjoyed viewing it as a summer staple throughout the 1990s and 2000s. Vaughan’s extensive background in sailing and his interest in writing about accomplished people come together seamlessly in The Strenuous Life of Harry Anderson, and his biography reads as both a comprehensive account and a fitting tribute to a fascinating man and iconic figure.

BULLETIN | FALL 2014 63

Phil Jackson: Lord of the Rings

By Peter Richmond ’71 | Reviewed by Stephen Farrell

PHIL JACKSON: LORD OF THE RINGS Author: Peter Richmond ’71 Publisher: Blue Rider Press About the Author: Peter Richmond ’71 has published seven books – including one New York Times bestseller. He is currently working on a young adult novel about prep school and is serving as an adjunct professor in writing at Moravian College.

About the Reviewer: Former Dean of Faculty Stephen Farrell has coached all levels of Choate basketball in his 35-year career at School.

Former NBA coach Phil Jackson has won more championships, 11, than any other coach in professional sports. Is he, hands down, the greatest coach of all time, or was he too dependent on having the best talent to garner his championship rings?

He was voted Coach of the Year only once, and he never used his legendary coaching skills either to turn around a beleaguered franchise or to win with discernibly less talent than his opponent. And how much credit do the general managers deserve for bringing in the talent, and the players for winning it on the floor?

Whatever your position, it is indisputable that Jackson took very talented but not fully achieving teams and successfully managed egos to create a winning atmosphere, first with the Chicago Bulls and later the Los Angeles Lakers.

In Phil Jackson: Lord of the Rings, Peter Richmond explores how Jackson won all those championships, whether he deserves the accolade of greatest NBA coach ever, and why someone of Jackson's intellect, curiosity, and free-spirited nature could never walk away from the multi-billion dollar game that is the NBA. Richmond did not have access to Jackson for the writing of his biography, but he says he felt "unburdened" by this reality, for he was free to see Jackson's life through the insights of those who knew him well.

Thus he draws on personal interviews with a number of Jackson's friends, associates, and players over the years, his own interactions with Jackson and personal knowledge of the NBA, and others' research and writing on Jackson, including Jackson's own books.

Richmond also faced the considerable challenge of succinctly recounting so many basketball seasons in 300 or so pages, and this biography may be difficult to follow for readers other than long-time basketball fans familiar with the large cast of characters Jackson has worked with over his multi-decade career.

Born into a Pentecostal family in Montana, but moving to North Dakota for his high school and college years, Jackson rises from these relatively modest

CARVING MY LIFE Author: Angela Treat Belknap Lyon ’63 Publisher: EBook available on angelatreatlyonart.com

beginnings to become a famous public figure. He is shaped by his provincial surroundings but attains his most significant successes in cosmopolitan locations – New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Richmond traces the important influences on Jackson: Native American culture; Eastern religions, particularly Buddhism; Red Holzman, his first NBA coach; and extensive reading of books on spirituality, psychology, and philosophy, which led to his becoming one of the most unusual, idiosyncratic, and elusive figures in American sports.

Over time, Jackson developed a distinctive and wellpublicized coaching personality. He had supreme confidence in himself, especially as he had success, and he was especially skilled at handling his players, managing the egos that can destroy a team in a sport where selflessness is critical. He was also a great if unorthodox communicator, giving players specific books to read that he thought would help them become better players and by holding meditations at the end of practice.

Always curious and always asking questions, Jackson continued to evolve over the course of his life.

Though not outwardly ambitious, almost as if it were unseemly, he nevertheless had a competitive spirit and a need for “ego gratification.” Richmond inevitably explores the question of whether Jackson’s staggering success changed him: Did he betray his roots and core values in the process of attaining all those championships? Like Jay Gatsby or Citizen Kane, did he lose his way along his journey to wealth, power, and fame?

And how much of a price did his family pay (three marriages and five children) as he pursued his life ambitions? Ultimately, Richmond believes Jackson must be judged by the numbers; other coaches given the same teams would not likely have won all those championships. In sum, a fascinating life, skillfully told by Richmond, and well worth reading.

CITADELLE: A PETER GRANT MYSTERY Author: Donald G. Geddes III ’49 Publisher: Available on Amazon.com

WHAT’S THE

BIG

64

END NOTE |

THE CLASSROOM (RE)DEFINED What do our Physics Primer and Language Maintenance Program have in common?

How about Introduction to Theater History, Water and Humanity, Introduction to Arabic, and Creating Community Creativity? They represent Choate's initial venture into the world of online courses and blended learning.

First piloted in 2013 to great success, the Physics Primer is offered to incoming freshmen and sophomores identified as in potential need of an enrichment experience prior to starting our core introductory physics course in the fall, while the Language Maintenance Program is offered to those returning students in Latin, Spanish, French, or Chinese who've had to step away from their language studies for a time. Neither results in a course grade and both are optional; the goal of each is to provide students a greater familiarity and comfort level with material they will face once school starts in the fall.

A second group of courses is offered during the academic year, beginning this fall: the multidisciplinary Water and Humanity and Introduction to Arabic entail collaboration with faculty from the Eight Schools Association (ESA); Introduction to Theater History is a Choate course offered to the ESA; and Creating Community Creativity is offered in collaboration with the Wallingford public school system. (The ESA consists of Choate Rosemary Hall, Deerfield Academy, The Hotchkiss School, The Lawrenceville School, Northfield Mount Hermon School, Phillips Academy Andover, Phillips Exeter Academy, and St Paul's School; the Wallingford high schools are Mark T. Sheehan and Lyman Hall.) Despite the fact that students in these courses will come from schools throughout the Northeast, our goal is the creation of a connected learning environment that blends the right mix of face-toface instruction with technology-mediated activities.

But there's more! Through the ESA collaboration, this past summer we offered select incoming students the option of participating in an online Algebra I course overseen by Deerfield (and monitored by our math department head) in which substantial progress could mean placement into Geometry (instead of Algebra I) come fall. A handful of older students were offered participation in Writing Works, a writing tutorial overseen by an Exeter faculty member. Deerfield may be our rival on the pitch, but they, with all of our ESA peers, are formidable allies when it comes to creating a global classroom.

While the summer offerings are for enhancement and enrichment – they are optional, no fee is charged, and no grades are assigned – the academic year offerings are elective courses. Both

broaden and deepen our curriculum as they build on our students' engagement with the digital world, creating a classroom environment that provides synchronous and asynchronous learning with teachers and students from within and without Choate's traditional walls; they introduce independent-minded students to the essential skills and strategies of online learning; they promote flexibility in a student's program of study, providing time and space for the focused and sustained pursuit of both academic and extracurricular passions; and they offer opportunities for belonging to virtual communities of learners – adults and youth – who are united in their passion for the material and desire for deep learning. Sound familiar? Talented teachers and engaged students collaborating and connecting over common goals? It's what we already do; we're just redefining the "classroom" where it happens!

As we prepare to launch the first of our academic year online offerings this fall, we are already planning for next steps – math courses for our students who study abroad and a traditional Choate "bricks and mortar" political science class offered to ESA online students, using a hybrid model.

Our foray into online and blended learning is one component of our Strategic Plan and complements two other initiatives: our introduction two years ago of iPads, one-to-one, providing students (and teachers) with a powerful tool that enhances learning; and our development of the i.d.Lab, a "way to capture the unique learning environment at Choate… that stands for flexibility and versatility, for project-based learning and practical application, for teachers and students collaborating to catalyze discovery and the best kinds for learning possible." (See the Spring 2014 Bulletin, What's the Big i.d.EA?) Online courses, as with iPads and the i.d.Lab, meld the traditional and the new, expanding the opportunities available to our students even as the core of a Choate education remains unchanged: teachers and students engaged in a common purpose, learning from each other in important ways as our students develop the knowledge, skills, and habits necessary for success in today's world.

K at h l e e n ly o n s W a l l a c e Kathleen Lyons Wallace is associate headmaster at Choate Rosemary Hall and has spearheaded Choate’s online learning initiatives.

Forever True… and we thank you

As she liked it… c o m m o n

T H E A N N UA L F U N D

r o o t s

s h a r e d p u r p o s e

As you’ll like it.

Among the many traditions Headmistress Caroline Ruutz-Rees introduced to Rosemary Hall were cricket, self-government, and the annual Shakespeare play. The first Shakespeare play was performed at Rosemary Hall in Wallingford in the spring of 1893. Pictured here is the 1898 production of As You Like It. In honor of our 125 years at School, and in celebration of our longstanding theatrical tradition, Choate Rosemary Hall’s theater program will reprise the comedy this October. Just as Caroline Ruutz-Rees’ would have liked it.

BULLETIN THE MAG A ZINE OF CHOATE ROSEMARY HALL

FALL ’14

Choate Rosemary Hall Bulletin is published fall, winter, and spring for alumni, students and their parents, and friends of the School. Please send change of address to Alumni Records and all other correspondence to the Communications Office, 333 Christian Street, Wallingford, CT 06492-3800.

Choate Rosemary Hall does not discriminate in the administration of its educational policies, athletics, other school-administered programs, or in the administration of its hiring and employment practices on the basis of age, gender, race, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, or non-job-related handicap.

Printed in U.S.A. 1415-013/17.5 M

Editorial Offices T: (203) 697-2252 F: (203) 697-2380 E-mail: alumline@choate.edu Website: www.choate.edu

Class Notes Editor Henry McNulty ’65

Director of Strategic Planning & Communications Alison J. Cady

Photography Donald R. Bennett Emily Bierman Deron Chang John Giammatteo ’77 Richard Howard Ian Morris Ross Mortensen

Editor Lorraine S. Connelly Design and Production David C. Nesdale

Communications Assistant Britney G. Cullinan

It all begins with a community of supporters…

Contributors Audrey Alt John H. Connelly Ellen Q. Devine Stephen C. Farrell Susan Peel Farrell G. Jeffrey MacDonald ’87 Katherine Marsh ’92 Kevin Mardesich ’87 Henry McNulty ’65 Benjamin F. Sylvester Kathleen Lyons Wallace Lindsay Whalen ’01 Thomas G. White

A hearty “Go Choate!” cheer is dedicated to the thousands of alumni, parents, and friends who gave to the 2013–2014 Choate Rosemary Hall Annual Fund! Thanks to your remarkable dedication to the School, we surpassed our goal of $5,100,000; we could not have done it without you! Your generous support helps us continue to prepare exceptional students to succeed in our rapidly changing world; to commit to learning, leadership, and service for a lifetime; and to improve the communities in which they live today … and tomorrow.

Thank you for your support – and for being forever true to gold and blue.

Go Choate!

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BULLETIN THE MAG A ZINE OF CHOATE ROSEMARY HALL

FALL ’14

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c o m m o n r o o t s

Cheer then for Choate…

s h a r e d p u r p o s e

vision & leadership

For generations we've been cheering our teams to victory against our rivals.

GO CHOATE! BEAT DEERFIELD

t r a d i t i o n s ta k e r o o t

1890–1915

Join Us to Kickoff the Celebration Deerfield Day, November 9, 2014 common roots

more details at www.choate.edu

The Choate Rosemary Hall Bulletin is printed using vegetable-based inks on FSC-certified, 100% post consumer recycled paper. This issue saved 101 trees, 42,000 gallons of wastewater, 291 lbs of waterborne waste, and 9,300 lbs of greenhouse gases from being emitted.

In this issue:

100 YEARS OF CREW

shared purpose

VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY: Retracing Caroline’s Footsteps

UPDATE: WHAT'S THE BIG i.d.EA?